[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2794]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                     NOW IS THE TIME FOR TAX RELIEF

  (Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GIBBONS. Madam Speaker, America and indeed this Congress has a 
lot to celebrate. After years of wasteful spending and rising deficits, 
our fiscal house is in order. Congress has a balanced fiscal budget. 
Since 1997 we have paid down approximately $363 billion of our public 
debt. We are on the course to paying off the complete $2 trillion 
public debt over the next 10 years.
  The Republican Congress has walled off nearly $3 trillion for the 
protection of Social Security, Medicare and further debt relief.
  The nonpartisan CBO estimates that we will have a $5.6 trillion 
surplus this year. Our fiscal house is not only in order, it is in the 
best possible shape it has been in generations. Now is the time to give 
Americans some much-needed tax relief. If the surplus money stays in 
Washington, it will only be spent on bigger and more wasteful 
government bureaucracy. We need to put America's families first. They 
want and deserve real tax relief now.

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