[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 25511-25512]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                     MEETING HALFWAY ON THE BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Madam Speaker, last week my wife went out to lunch 
with some of her friends and she told them that Gil was still in 
Washington and that they were still negotiating the final details of 
the budget, and they were surprised to learn that. In fact, we now know 
that most Americans are somewhat surprised that Congress is still in 
session.
  The rumor started back in September that perhaps the President would 
hold the Congress hostage here in Washington, perhaps to gain some 
political advantage, perhaps to force some kind of a showdown and 
perhaps even a government shutdown. But, to the credit of the 
leadership here in the Congress, we have been pleasantly persistent, we 
have been negotiating in good faith, and, as a result, we have many of 
the details worked out. Frankly, I think the ones that are remaining 
are more about partisan politics than anything else, and simply trying 
to embarrass the Congress.
  As you can see by this chart, these numbers are kind of small, but, 
frankly, in terms of what we have appropriated versus what the 
President requested, the differences really at this point do not seem 
to be very large. We have appropriated more for national defense than 
the President originally requested and a little bit less in a few

[[Page 25512]]

other categories, and, as a budgeteer, I have to say I am a little 
surprised we are actually spending more than we originally said in our 
original budget document. One of the things I thought was important was 
we ought to make it clear that the Federal budget should grow at a rate 
slower than the average family budget. For the most part, that has been 
what has happened.
  But this year, of course, Washington has a big budget surplus, and, 
guess what happens when Washington has a big budget surplus? People 
want to spend it. This is not a partisan issue either. There are 
Republicans who want to spend the surplus, there are Democrats who want 
to spend the surplus, and certainly the people down at the other end of 
Pennsylvania Avenue want to spend that surplus.
  So what has happened is the Congressional leaders have said that at 
least 90 percent of that surplus ought to go to pay down debt, because 
all of us believe there is something fundamentally immoral for this 
generation to leave a debt to the next generation. As a result, we will 
have paid off $350 billion in publicly held debt, in fact, we have 
right now, and by the end of next year that number could well exceed 
$500 billion worth of debt held by the general public that this 
Congress will have paid off.
  That is good news. But the President seems to be a moving target, 
because as soon as we agree to one thing, the President says, oh, no, 
what I really want is more money here. We really need to spend more 
money on this.
  Now the issue of school construction comes up. As you can see, in 
terms of education we are spending about exactly as much money as the 
President requested. The problem is not how much are we going to spend 
on children, the question is who gets to do the spending?
  Many of us feel very, very strongly that if you are going to 
authorize more money to be available for school construction, that 
those decisions ought to be made by the people who know the children's 
names. We do not think it ought to be done by the Department of 
Education, because the record of the Department of Education is not 
good.
  For the third consecutive year, the Federal Department of Education 
has failed its audit. In fact, last year we are told by our own 
accounting office, the General Accounting Office, there is about $100 
million that the Department of Education cannot account for. Now, we do 
not think it is a good idea to turn even more authority over spending 
school bond money to the Federal Department of Education. We feel 
pretty strongly about that.
  We also feel pretty strongly that it would be a huge mistake to grant 
blanket amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Now, we are willing to 
allow families to be reunited, we are willing to make accommodations. 
We are willing on spending and policy issues to meet the President more 
than halfway. But sometimes he will not even accept ``yes'' for an 
answer.
  Clearly, some people in this town are putting partisan politics above 
the needs of the American people. The real question comes down to this, 
and we have never gotten a clear answer from the administration or from 
our friends on the left here in Congress: How much is enough? We are 
willing to spend, and we believe that $1.9 trillion is more than enough 
to meet the legitimate needs of the American people, the Federal 
Government and those who depend upon it. We believe that $1.9 trillion 
is fiscally responsible. We are still spending more than I would like 
to see spent.
  But the President continues to say, well, that is not quite enough. 
But he will not give us a number. We are more than willing to meet the 
President more than halfway, but we are not willing to compromise 
America's future. We want to take at lease 90 percent of that surplus 
to pay down the publicly held debt. Most importantly, that is what the 
American people want us to do.
  We are more than willing to compromise and meet with the President 
and work out some agreement that is in the best interests of the 
American people. The real question is, is he?

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