James Davis: “last year the Republicans in the House of Representatives beat their chests mightily to talk about a $792 billion tax…”

“last year the Republicans in the House of Representatives beat their chests mightily to talk about a $792 billion tax cut over 10 years. That tax cut was so fiscally irresponsible that it was rejected throughout the country. We are back this year with the same situation, except now we will not even talk about it. In our Committee on the Budget hearing I asked our chairman, what was the price tag over 10 years for this tax cut? I could not get a straight answer. But today, I understand that number has been put out here before the body. It is $200 billion over 5 years. Now, the question that the public deserves to have the answer to here, and we ought to answer it for ourselves, is what is the 10-year cost of this tax cut? Well, last year the $792 billion tax cut was $156 billion over 5 years. We are talking about $200 billion over 5 years. So the math is pretty simple. We are looking at a $1 trillion tax cut over 10 years. Now, there are those up here that think we ought to use the projected surplus for massive tax cuts and some that want to go on a spending spree, and I reject both positions. We should take the lion's share of the projected surplus and use it to pay down this massive Federal debt. Why should we focus on paying down a $3.47 trillion Federal debt? Consider these facts: in 1999, we spent $230 billion in interested payments, 13 percent of our discretionary spending. That is $3,644 per every family in America with four people.”