Christopher Shays: “none of it was cutting defense. We were cutting discretionary domestic spending. We added back $11 billion; some of it…”

“none of it was cutting defense. We were cutting discretionary domestic spending. We added back $11 billion; some of it went to defense, for very necessary things. In 1996, the President wanted to spend $7 billion more than 1995 in discretionary spending. We spent $23 billion less. All cuts to domestic discretionary spending. No cut to defense. We cut HUD $6.3 billion from 1995 to 1996. EPA we cut $713 million. FEMA we cut $143 million. The Department of Education, we cut $1.5 billion. NASA, we cut $473 million. The National Science Foundation, we cut $141 million. The summer youth program, we cut $185 million. We cut from legal services $122 million. We did cut domestic spending. We have to be truthful about it. We did not cut Medicare. We did not cut Medicaid. We allowed the student loan program to grow. We did not cut the earned income tax credit. That is all going up. Entitlement are going up under our budget. We are just slowing the growth. Domestic spending, nondefense spending, is going down. We are cutting it. And some of us happen to serve on those committees where we would have liked to have spent more, but we knew we had to cut to balance this budget in 7 years, and I just urge my colleagues to recognize that we need to get our financial house in order.”