[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3405-3406]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                    PRESIDENT BUSH'S TAX RELIEF PLAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2001, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, this body last week passed President's 
Bush's tax relief plan, the first step towards a broad tax reduction 
for our generation. The timing, Mr. Speaker, could not be better for 
all of us. We have to tighten our belts and prepare for a possible 
change in our economy.
  In fact, the NASDAQ stock exchange closed below 2000 points 
yesterday, the first time the index closed so low since December, 1998.
  President Bush's tax relief plan is a vital means of ensuring the 
economic engine that we have today continues to

[[Page 3406]]

move forward, continues running; and of course, we do not want the 
economy to stall. By returning Americans' hard-earned dollars back to 
their wallets through tax relief, we will be saving Americans their 
checking accounts and, of course, and this is my point this afternoon, 
from Congress spending their money. For, if we fail to return money 
back to all those hard-working Americans, men and women, the Federal 
Government will just keep writing checks to spend their money. It is 
important we give it back to them, with the economy starting to slow.
  How much money would Congress spend? Well, due to previous threats of 
a government shutdown by former President Clinton, and now a 
practically evenly divided Congress, the Federal Government has been on 
a spending spree of record proportions since the budgets emerged in 
1998.
  I believe President Bush has proposed holding spending at roughly 4 
percent, a 4 percent increase. He has also offered to pay down the debt 
while reducing the record tax burden shouldered by all Americans, 
furthermore removing from Congress the temptation to spend the tax 
overpayment Americans are presently paying to the U.S. Treasury.
  Even Chairman Alan Greenspan agrees with this plan. When the 
Congressional Budget Office, CBO, came out with its most recent budget 
estimates, one number, Mr. Speaker, stood out: $5.6 trillion. That is 
the size of the projected surplus over the next 10 years. It is enough, 
of course, to pay down the debt, reduce the tax burden through broad 
tax relief, and target spending at some of the important programs that 
President Bush just talked about: health care, defense, and education.
  But within that budget analysis, there was another number that 
garnered less attention. That number was $561 billion. That is the 
amount of new spending Congress added during last fall's spending 
spree, discretionary, mandatory, and additional interest expense, $561 
billion. That amount represents fully one-third the size of the 
proposed Bush tax relief plan.
  It also represents the iceberg's proverbial tip. Since the surplus 
emerged in 1998, Congress has accelerated spending increases three-
fold. In the 3 years prior to 1998, discretionary budget authority grew 
at a reasonable approximately 2 percent a year. Since 1998, 
discretionary budget authority has grown at a galloping 6 percent a 
year.
  How much has this increase in discretionary spending reduced the 
projected surplus? It is $1.4 trillion. Again, that is just the 
discretionary spending. According to the CBO, the mandatory spending 
adopted by Congress last fall reduced the available surplus by $70 
billion.
  Mr. Speaker, in 3 years we have already reduced the projected surplus 
by almost the equivalent of President Bush's tax relief plan. Moreover, 
the Office of Management and Budget estimates that if discretionary 
spending continues to grow at its current rate, the 10-year surplus 
would be $1.4 trillion less over the next 10 years; again, almost equal 
to the Bush tax relief. So if we do not give it back to the people 
today, Congress will spend this money beyond inflation's cost of 
living.
  An analysis of spending since the budget surpluses first emerged 
showed that if Congress had avoided this simple temptation to increase 
spending above the budget baseline caps, today we could offer American 
families a tax relief program equivalent to the Bush plan, and still we 
would be able to have a $5.6 trillion surplus left over to pay down the 
debt, increase funding for education, health care, and defense, and 
still cut taxes even further.
  Mr. Speaker, I conclude by urging the other body, the Chamber in the 
Senate, and other Americans to support the President's broad-based tax 
relief for American families, and of course, hold spending to 4 
percent.

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