[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 4288]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              WHATEVER HAPPENED TO FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY?

  (Ms. SLAUGHTER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, whatever happened to the Republicans who 
were fiscally responsible? I think they must have left town after 
President Bush came to Washington in 2001.
  In January of that year, thanks to the fiscal policies of the Clinton 
administration, we were expecting a $5.6 trillion budget surplus over 
10 years. Instead, thanks to the fiscal policies of President Bush and 
the Republican ``Rubber Stamp'' Congress, that $5.6 trillion surplus 
has been turned into a $3.3 trillion deficit.
  President Bush has yet to propose a balanced budget, and yet the 
Republicans do not seem to mind. They keep signing off on the budget 
proposals, ignoring fiscal discipline.
  Because of their reckless borrow-and-spend policy, Republicans were 
forced to increase the debt limit earlier this year for the fourth time 
in 5 years, raising it to nearly $9 trillion. We are currently 
borrowing more than $600,000 a minute, much of it from foreign 
countries such as China and Saudi Arabia.
  Mr. Speaker, if House Republicans are serious about fiscal 
discipline, they will stop rubber-stamping President Bush's failed 
fiscal policies.

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