[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 32 (Tuesday, February 24, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H2610-H2611]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




PRESIDENT OBAMA WILL PRESENT AN HONEST BUDGET THAT CUTS THE DEFICIT IN 
                           HALF IN FIVE YEARS

  (Ms. SUTTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. SUTTON. Mr. Speaker, President Obama inherited a fiscal mess 
created by 8 years of Republican economic and fiscal policies. Tonight, 
our new President will begin the slow process of restoring fiscal 
discipline to Washington. He will do that first by leveling with the 
American people about the true costs of the budget he'll release on 
Thursday.
  Second, he will re-institute the pay-as-you-go guidelines similar to 
those that have been in place here in the Democratic House now for the 
last 2

[[Page H2611]]

years. The principle of pay-as-you-go played an instrumental role in 
creating the budget surpluses of the 1990s. Unfortunately, those 
commonsense principles were rejected by the Bush administration, and 
helped lead to the record deficit that our country must now address.
  And, third, President Obama is expected to propose mandatory, across-
the-board spending cuts to offset any new initiative that expands the 
government's red ink.
  Mr. Speaker, these reforms will help us cut the budget deficit in 
half over the next 5 years, which is not bad, considering what we 
inherited from our Republican friends.

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