Frank Riggs: “Mr. Speaker and colleagues, yesterday House Republicans offered a plan to balance the Federal budget by the year 2002.…”

“Mr. Speaker and colleagues, yesterday House Republicans offered a plan to balance the Federal budget by the year 2002. Our plan allocates $11 trillion for Federal spending over the next 7 years. It protects Social Security. It eliminates three Cabinet-level departments, 13 agencies and 284 Federal programs, and it provides the much needed tax relief for families, as promised in our Contract With America. Now, let us look at what will happen if we take the House Democrats' approach and do nothing but maintain the status quo. A child born this year can expect to pay $187,000 over the course of his or her lifetime as a wage earner and taxpayer just in interest on the national debt, and in 2 years, interest on the national debt will exceed defense spending as the single largest item in the Federal budget. Mr. Speaker, which alternative would the House choose next week: the status quo or a plan to balance the budget by limiting the growth in Federal spending and eliminating wasteful spending and programs that simply have outlived their usefulness? The answer is clear. We have to balance the Federal budget. We have a moral imperative to preserve the American dream for our children and our grandchildren.”