[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19805]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



               ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Herger) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HERGER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Armey), our majority leader, very much for leading this very 
informative hour on programs that are so very important to our Nation, 
to our seniors, to our American taxpayers.
  Madam Speaker, I would like just to comment some on that. I have had 
the great privilege this last 8 years of serving on the Committee on 
the Budget, and I have seen over the last 6 years during the time that 
we have had the Republican Congress accomplishing some tasks that many 
thought we could never do, i.e., the first balanced budget in 60 years. 
Something which, by the way, President Clinton and the Vice President, 
Al Gore, vetoed not once or twice, but three times.
  Also, something we thought we would never see was welfare reform. 
And, again, even though Ronald Reagan once said that, ``There is no 
limit to what you can accomplish as long as you don't care who takes 
the credit''; well, our Republican Congress, we were able to reform 
welfare. It has been reduced by more than 50 percent on the average in 
the 50 States.

                              {time}  1700

  Those are individuals who are now out working being productive. 
Again, the President vetoed this twice, not once, but twice, and then I 
know he and the Vice President were out taking credit for it. Again, it 
does not matter who gets the credit, but it happened, and it happened 
under the watch of this Republican Congress.
  What have we done balancing the budget? Welfare reform? We have seen 
that we have been able for again for the first time in some 40 years to 
begin paying down the national public debt. As a matter of fact, up to 
this point, we paid it down by $350 billion. And in this next year, we 
are down, that is over the last 3 years, for another $240 billion 
paying down the public debt; that debt which rests on the shoulders of 
our children and our grandchildren, money that past Congresses have 
spent more than what we had.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey), the 
majority leader, and those who are watching look on this chart that I 
have here, what it does, it compares Vice President Al Gore's budget 
and proposal, spending proposals, that he has and compares it with 
Governor George W. Bush's.
  Now, this chart was prepared and the statistics were put out by the 
National Taxpayer Union Foundation, and it shows that right now the on-
budget surplus for the next 10 years is projected to be $2.1 trillion. 
It is interesting to look at Vice President Gore, who is running for 
President, his spending, his expenditures add up to $2.8 trillion.
  Mr. Speaker, I might mention Governor Bush's spending adds up to $766 
billion, his spending proposals. Well, the difference from what is 
projected as surplus over the next 10 years and what Vice President 
Gore would spend would put us in some $638 billion deficit again. In 
other words, under his administration, we would again return to deficit 
spending. And where does that come from?
  The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey), the majority leader, knows of 
the legislation which I authored and which passed this last year. We, 
as Republicans, put a lock box on not spending the Social Security 
money that had not been spent yet. And we passed that overwhelmingly 
out of this House, 416-12 this year, and that had been spent since 
1935, all that money, and it amounts to several hundred billion dollars 
a year, but we had been spending that which was a surplus spending on 
ongoing programs.
  This year we passed an additional lockbox on the Medicare. Now, where 
would this $638 billion come from what Gore would spend? Well, it would 
come, Mr. Speaker, come from the Social Security money that should be 
going to pay our seniors. Is that right? No, it is not. Can we afford, 
this country, to turn around and go back into the direction that we 
were going for years here where we spend on promises to everyone that 
may be well meaning, but spending money that we do not have? I think 
the answer is clearly no.
  Mr. Speaker, of course, here in about another month and a half we are 
going to have an election that will determine whether the American 
public is going to go back to the failed policies of tax and spend that 
we have had in the past, or whether or not we are going to continue the 
direction that this Republican Congress has led us in in the last 6 
years moving towards again fiscal responsibility.
  Again, I thank the gentleman from Texas, the majority leader for this 
time.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, let me just say what the gentleman's charts 
shows is that the pundits are right, if Governor Bush is President 
during the worst of time, we might lose the surplus, but it also shows 
that if Vice President Gore is President during the best of times, he 
will spend the surplus.
  Mr. HERGER. That is right; he only spends one-third of the surplus, 
the rest is for paying down the debt further and for perhaps some tax 
relief and some other good things.

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