[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3433-3434]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  THE SURPLUS BELONGS TO THE TAXPAYERS

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I have a simple question to ask. To whom does 
the surplus belong? Anyone listening to the other side would conclude 
that the surplus belongs to the government. In speech after speech, I 
have heard implied that politicians in Washington have the first claim 
to the money as if it is their money.
  The surplus belongs to the taxpayers. It is their money. The surplus 
is in fact

[[Page 3434]]

nothing more than tax overpayment made by taxpayers.
  Anyone who has ever looked at Washington for any length of time knows 
that one of only two things will happen to the surplus. We can give it 
back to the people who earned it or Washington will find a way to spend 
it.
  I think Jesse ``The Body'' Ventura was right. The government should 
apologize and then refund the money back to the people to whom it 
belongs in the first place, the taxpayers of America.

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