Rich Neal: “Mr. Speaker, let me stand in opposition today to this Republican deficit plan and remind my colleagues of the warning…”

“Mr. Speaker, let me stand in opposition today to this Republican deficit plan and remind my colleagues of the warning that is often cited about not learned from the mistakes of history. Let us talk about the wise reflections today of David Stockman, who essentially said that what was proposed 20 years ago was fiscal folly and suggested in his memoirs that not only was it irresponsible, it represented a threat to the long term fiscal stability of this Nation. He concluded that more debt would be rolled up than all of the debts accumulated by Reagan's 39 predecessors. And after leaving as Reagan's Budget Director he said, ``We were not headed toward a brave new world as I had thought in February. We were not headed toward a vindication of the President's half-revolution, as Don Regan and the supply-siders fatuously insisted in November. Where we were headed was toward fiscal catastrophe.'' These tax cuts are geared and aimed towards the wealthiest of Americans. Again, the argument in this Chamber essentially is this: It is okay today to have a huge deficit after this economy soared when we repaired that philosophy just a few years ago. Fiscal catastrophe indeed, Mr. Speaker, that is where we are headed.”