[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 28186]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 28186]]

        REPUBLICANS MAKE WASHINGTON KICK TWO BAD HABITS AT ONCE

  (Mr. BALLENGER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BALLENGER. Mr. Speaker, bad habits are hard to break, especially 
when those habits are 30 years old.
  Maybe it should not surprise me that the Washington big spenders who 
have raided the social security trust fund for the last 30 years are 
having trouble kicking that habit.
  But just because it is not surprising does not mean that it is okay. 
It is not okay to raid the social security trust fund and use the money 
for other governmental programs. It is not okay to jeopardize the 
retirement security of millions of hard-working Americans.
  While I am not surprised that President Clinton and the Democrats in 
Congress are having such trouble kicking this bad habit, I am 
disappointed by it. But we Republicans will stand firm. We have stopped 
the social security raid. We have passed a bill that protects the 
retirement money of America's working men and women, and at the same 
time we are rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in Washington 
bureaucracy.
  We are making Washington kick two bad habits at once. That is what I 
call good government.

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