[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 22998]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



   WE HAVE THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESS TO THANK FOR FAVORABLE BUDGET NEWS

  (Mr. WICKER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WICKER. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the President showed how easy it 
is to pick up a magic marker and write some favorable budget 
information on a poster. It is quite another thing, as we know, to 
actually make the tough decisions that have gotten us to a balanced 
budget. And forgive the partisanship, Mr. and Mrs. America, but we have 
the Republican Congress to thank for yesterday's favorable budget news.
  It is easy to forget back in 1993 and 1994, when President Clinton 
and the Democrats had this town all to themselves and made no progress 
on balancing the budget. As a matter of fact, the President would not 
even try. In 1995, he came before this Congress and proposed budget 
deficits of $300 billion a year as far as the eye could see.
  Now that we actually have a budget surplus, Republicans want to pay 
down the debt and give a portion of that surplus back to the taxpayers 
in the form of tax relief.
  President Clinton talks about making additional ``investments''. From 
the person who raised taxes but called them ``contributions'' and 
``sacrifices'', additional national investments sounds like a lot of 
new Federal spending to me.

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