On the recordMarch 8, 2001
my wife and I taught our three daughters to eat their dinner before they could have their desert. What this House is doing today is they are trying to have their dessert before they eat their dinner. Now, the way we eat our dinner here in Congress is we write a budget. We sit down and we decide what our priorities are going to be. We answer some difficult questions, like how do we balance tax cuts against paying down the national debt? How do we balance tax cuts against protecting Social Security and Medicare? How do we balance tax cuts against supporting the men and women in our Armed Forces, our farmers, and our veterans? That is what budgets are for. Mr. Speaker, we are going to get our dessert this year. We are going to have a tax cut this year, but we should eat our dinner first. We have to figure out how to fit this tax cut into a responsible budget framework. Let us pass the budget first, then cut taxes.
Source
govinfo.gov
