Steny Hoyer: “there is not anybody in here who is not against waste, fraud and abuse. Ronald Reagan ran in 1980, and he said he was…”

“there is not anybody in here who is not against waste, fraud and abuse. Ronald Reagan ran in 1980, and he said he was going to save a lot of money by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. The Republicans were in charge of the Senate. Ronald Reagan was President of the United States. Not once, not ever did Ronald Reagan have a veto of any appropriation bill overridden, not once that asked to spend more money. He was in charge of the executive department. George Bush was in charge of the executive department for the 4 years following, for 12 years in a row. And, Mr. Nussle, you know what happened to waste, fraud and abuse? You quadrupled the national debt, I say to my friend who is trying to ignore me. You quadrupled the national debt from $985 billion to $4 trillion. Why did Mr. Reagan and Mr. Bush not eliminate waste, fraud and abuse? And then what happened? Bill Clinton came to town, elected President of the United States, and what happened in those 8 years? For 8 years in a row the deficit came down, for 4 years; and then the surplus started going up until 2001. We had 4 years of surpluses for the first time in 80 years. And then what happened? President Bush came to office. Mr. Nussle became the chairman of the Committee on the Budget, and we have reescalated the debt. This budget proposes the largest debt in the history of this country. This budget is an April fool, a cruel hoax and joke on the American public.”