[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

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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.