[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 81 (Wednesday, June 21, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H4335]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  LINE ITEM VETO WON'T BALANCE BUDGET

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, over the next couple of days we are going 
to hear a lot from House Republicans about how they are finally being 
fiscally responsible by giving the President a line item veto. The 
House Republicans are kidding themselves if they believe this will 
reverse the fiscal collapse they have presided over the last 5 years.
  If House Republicans were really interested in restoring fiscal 
discipline here in Washington, they would have adopted a 2007 budget 
that actually balanced the budget in the coming years. Instead, the 
House Republican budget actually makes the deficit worse, offers no 
plan to bring the budget back in balance, and adds to the growing 
burden of the national debt. Thanks to these Republican budgets, the 
five largest deficits in history will have occurred in these last 5 
consecutive years.
  Giving President Bush a line item veto will not change the course. 
Instead, we need to go in a new direction. House Democrats offered an 
alternative that balanced the Federal budget by 2012. Our proposal also 
restored pay-as-you-go rules that were so successful in turning 
deficits into surpluses in the 1990s. Democrats offered a fiscally 
sound plan, but Republicans rejected it.
  So much for Republican fiscal discipline.

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