[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 21045]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          RESPONSIBLE TAX CUTS

  (Mr. GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, only in this Congress, with a 
small Republican majority, would we experience the following: cuts in 
housing funds, cuts in science and space funds, cuts in education 
funds, no planning to safeguard Medicare for the future growth, almost 
$6 billion in national debt that is owed from the last 50 years, and 
the major issue we are talking about for the next few weeks is whether 
we want a tax cut.
  Let us be clear about the debate. I would like to have a tax cut, 
too, just like most Americans, but the biggest concern we have is 
making sure Social Security is there, Medicare is there, and that we 
also pay down the national debt.
  We cannot ignore those issues and only talk about a tax cut. The 
Republican plan for tax cuts is financially irresponsible. It only 
passed the House by a few votes and now they are going to use it for 
the next month to talk about how bad the President is. Let us put that 
aside and get on about our business of legislating.
  During the August recess, I talked to hundreds of constituents in my 
district in Houston, like people did all over the country, and they 
talked about the need to safeguard Social Security, Medicare, and pay 
down that debt.

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