[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17018]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                  THE THIRD BALANCED BUDGET IN 3 YEARS

  (Mr. WELLER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WELLER. Mr. Speaker, 2 years ago, this House and this Congress 
and the President joined with us in enacting the first balanced budget 
in 28 years, a balanced budget which contained key middle class tax 
cuts. Thanks to that middle class tax cut we are enjoying a booming 
economy and a $3 trillion projected budget surplus.
  Of course, under the Republican budget, we set aside two-thirds of 
the surplus for Medicare and Social Security; one-third we use, of 
course, for tax relief. I would also point out under this Republican 
budget this year, the third balanced budget in 3 years, we are going to 
set aside $6 for debt retirement for every dollar in tax relief.
  I also want to point out in this tax relief package that we are 
working on right now, that we are addressing a question that I have 
raised in this House, and that is is it right, is it fair, that under 
our Tax Code today, married working couples pay more in taxes just 
because they are married?
  A key provision of the Financial Freedom Act, of course, is efforts 
to eliminate the marriage tax penalty for almost 28 million married 
working couples, who will receive $243 in marriage tax relief, and it 
is time. Think about it; $243, that is a month's car payment for a lot 
of families. This legislation deserves bipartisan support.

                          ____________________