[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15903]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     AMERICANS DO NOT WANT A FEEL-GOOD-VOTE-FOR-ME-IN-2000 TAX CUT

  (Ms. HOOLEY of Oregon asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. HOOLEY of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, seems like everyone is talking 
about tax cuts. As a Member with a tax cut proposal before Congress, 
H.R. 2085, I am glad that the majority party is suddenly and somewhat 
frantically interested in moving forward with a tax cut proposal.
  But I ask my friends in Congress to take this step forward carefully. 
Americans deserve a tax cut, but first they want to make sure that 
Social Security is solvent; and, second, they want to make sure that 
Medicare is there for them in the future. They do not want a tax cut 
that raises the national debt. And the last thing hard-working 
Americans do not want is a feel-good-vote-for-me-in-2000 tax cut that 
cannot survive a downturn in the economy.
  Fiscal responsibility always seems to suffer in election years, and 
the 2000 election has Washington pandering. Let us stop and think about 
the long term before we move forward. H.R. 2085 walls off Social 
Security and Medicare funds, helps pay down the national debt and still 
gives Americans a meaningful tax cut.
  There is room to do the prudent thing here. Let us work together and 
get it done in a fiscally responsible manner.

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