Maxwell Frost: “There are 51 billion reasons to be against this rule. That is how much the Treasury has announced it is borrowing to…”

“There are 51 billion reasons to be against this rule. That is how much the Treasury has announced it is borrowing to finance the tax rebate passed by Congress and signed into law by the President. The President and this Congress are now party to borrowing from Peter to pay Paul because we just cannot afford to pay for those $300 and $600 checks that are now in the mail out of the money we have in the bank. In fact, there are an additional 33 billion reasons to defeat this rule. That is because this rule makes in order $33 billion in energy tax cuts that are not paid for. The Republican majority has, by recommending this rule, begun a head-long rush into a raid on the Medicare Trust Fund. The Republican leadership simply refuses to pay for their policies up front and in cash. Instead, the Republican majority wants to put everything on the national credit card. Mr. Speaker, this is a world turned upside down, because it seems the Republican Party has now become addicted to deficit spending, and it is Democrats who are now the party of fiscal responsibility.”