    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1991, Book I)]
    [January 3, 1991]
    [Pages 5-6]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Statement on the House of Representatives Action on the Federal Budget
    Agreement
    January 3, 1991

        I am deeply disappointed by and disturbed about the vote taken in
    the House of Representatives this afternoon which is designed to undo
    the pay-as-you-go enforcement mechanism just legislated in the recently
    enacted budget agreement. The vote occurred along strictly partisan
    lines. While the Democrats in the House tried to dress up their action,
    the inescapable point is that their purpose is to break the agreement
    that was negotiated and passed into law.
        Changing the House rules with a purely

    [[Page 6]]

    party-line vote is neither fair nor right. That they have sought to
    break the budget agreement in what is virtually their first act of the
    102d Congress puts in serious doubt whatever they might say or promise
    the American people on other significant issues in the upcoming session.
        The provision the House Democrats would undo today is a key to
    enforcing the controls on Federal spending contained in the agreement,
    and uncontrolled spending simply creates excuses for their raising
    taxes.
        This matter is so fundamental to public confidence in the budget
    agreement and in the Government itself that I must state again,
    unequivocally, that I will veto any bill that contains the language
    specified in the rule passed by the House Democrats this afternoon.