[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 20303]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         PAY THE NATION'S BILLS

  (Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, when I was getting ready to come to 
Washington today, I put on this suit which I had not worn in quite a 
while; and when I reached into my pocket, I found, much to my surprise, 
a $10 bill.
  I pulled it out and said to my wife, Dawn, ``Look, honey, $10.'' It 
was kind of like having free money.
  But she quickly reminded me and shook her head, took the $10, and 
told me that we still had bills to pay.
  It reminded me of the budget battle that we are facing today here in 
this House. And since our Democrats like our Nation's surplus, think of 
it as free money, but it is not.
  My colleagues, we still have a big bill to pay of our Nation's public 
debt. And the surplus would not have been possible without the common 
sense policies of this Republican Congress. And now we must exercise 
the same responsibility with the surplus and reject the Democrats' big 
spending plans.
  We can pay down the national debt and meet this Nation's most 
pressing needs, like enacting prescription drug plans that offer 
seniors real choice. But we must commit 90 percent of the surplus to 
paying our bills to wiping out our public debt, because no one is going 
to reach into the pocket of an old suit and pull out $6.5 trillion.

                          ____________________