Sam Gibbons: “Will Rogers once said that you have to be an optimist to be a Democrat and you have got to be a humorist to stay one.…”

“Will Rogers once said that you have to be an optimist to be a Democrat and you have got to be a humorist to stay one. Yesterday the President must have thought that he was using humor when he said that the creation of the surplus is due to the fiscal restraint and leadership of his administration. I believe the only thing that the President left out of his speech was a line from the Wizard of Oz, Toto, ``I do not think we are in Kansas anymore,'' because this make-believe yellow brick road theory that his administration is responsible for the surplus is nothing but simple pure comedy. I think of myself as a person who recognizes and appreciates humor. I certainly did not mind laughing at the President's stand-up comedy routine yesterday. But we have thrown back the curtain and we have seen that the voice behind the curtain is a very same voice whose only budget proposal projected a $241 billion deficit for this year. Mr. Speaker, it is time to get back to reality. It is the Republican Congress and Republican leadership that deserves the credit for this surplus.”