[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 1638]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      POLITICALLY POPULAR PROMISES

  (Mr. DUNCAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, one of the main reasons the economy has 
been so strong over the last few years is that following the 1994 
elections, we finally started bringing Federal spending under control. 
Alice Rivlin, who was the President's budget director, put out a memo 
in 1993 saying that if we did not make changes, we would have deficits 
of over $1 trillion a year by the year 2010 and $4 trillion to $5 
trillion a year by 2030. If we had allowed that to happen, our economy 
would have crashed. Now we are actually seeing surpluses.
  But it is politically popular and very easy to promise everything to 
everybody. The National Taxpayers' Union said the President's State of 
the Union address would require a $288.4 billion increase in spending 
in the first year alone. Last week Newsweek magazine published a chart 
showing we would have a shortfall of $2.3 trillion in the next 15 years 
if we enacted all of these programs.
  If we do this, Madam Speaker, we will very quickly be in serious 
trouble in our economy once again. We must not let it happen.

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