[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17839]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       THE ORIGIN OF THE DEFICIT

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I think as we look at this lame duck 
session at the end of the 111th Congress, how we got where we are with 
the deficit, which was such a big issue--in 1994, Congress and 
President Clinton passed a bill to balance the budget, all Democrats. 
The result of it was the Democrats suffered a great election defeat in 
1994. The Republicans took over with Newt Gingrich and had the House 
for the next 12 years. But we balanced the budget with a budget surplus 
by the year 2000.
  Then President Bush came in office, and he gave these tax cuts away 
to a trillion-dollar war in Iraq, a war in Afghanistan, and passed 
Medicare part D, the largest extension of Federal benefits ever, 
tremendous deficit, increasing much more so than any health care bill 
passed since or the one that we passed, and we got this tremendous 
deficit.
  Now the Republicans talk about earmarks. Earmarks have nothing to do 
with the deficit at all. It has to do with tough decisions to increase 
revenues or cut spending; $700 billion cuts to the richest isn't the 
way to do it. You've got to look at the Fed and other areas and be 
brave.

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