Cliff Stearns: “I come here to support the Conservative Action Team's budget. Let me say, first of all, there are perhaps three reasons…”

“I come here to support the Conservative Action Team's budget. Let me say, first of all, there are perhaps three reasons why all Members should consider it. First of all, it has the lowest increase relative to inflation of all the budgets. Second of all, for those folks who want higher defense spending, this budget has it. The third reason is it has a lockbox, a lockbox dealing with the Social Security Trust Fund. As I understand it, it is the only one that has the lockbox, which means any savings in this budget are going right back to the Social Security Trust Fund. Of course, lastly, for those of us concerned about user fees and taxes, this budget has the most amount of reduction in user fees and taxes. For all of those reasons, I urge my colleagues to support the Conservative Action Team. We have had a lot of rhetoric on this side, but this budget in fact brings it down home. So you have less taxes, higher defense spending, and, at the same time, a lockbox for Social Security. Mr. Chairman, the debt is going up in this country. Every year the debt is going up. Yet we talk about a balanced budget. How can the debt go up if we are balancing the budget? Because we are not. We are taking funds from the Social Security Trust Fund, and that is not right. A lockbox and the Conservative Action Team will stop that. Mr. Chairman. I want to compliment my colleague from Ohio, Chairman Kasich, for his tremendous efforts in bringing his FY '99 budget to the floor today.”