Sam Gibbons: “when I was getting ready to come to Washington today, I put on this suit which I had not worn in quite a while; and when…”

“when I was getting ready to come to Washington today, I put on this suit which I had not worn in quite a while; and when I reached into my pocket, I found, much to my surprise, a $10 bill. I pulled it out and said to my wife, Dawn, ``Look, honey, $10.'' It was kind of like having free money. But she quickly reminded me and shook her head, took the $10, and told me that we still had bills to pay. It reminded me of the budget battle that we are facing today here in this House. And since our Democrats like our Nation's surplus, think of it as free money, but it is not. My colleagues, we still have a big bill to pay of our Nation's public debt. And the surplus would not have been possible without the common sense policies of this Republican Congress. And now we must exercise the same responsibility with the surplus and reject the Democrats' big spending plans. We can pay down the national debt and meet this Nation's most pressing needs, like enacting prescription drug plans that offer seniors real choice. But we must commit 90 percent of the surplus to paying our bills to wiping out our public debt, because no one is going to reach into the pocket of an old suit and pull out $6.5 trillion.”