Political Quotes

“I just came from our Republican Conference talking about what is in this omnibus appropriation bill. The good news is that when we think of what might have happened with the tax-and-spend presidency, with the tax-and-spend Democrats, what would have happened if Democrats were in control of this Chamber not fighting to make sure that we did not reach into the surpluses that we have for additional spending. What we have accomplished since the Republicans took the majority 4 years ago is a tremendous reduction in deficit spending. The unified budget deficit 4 years ago was $210 billion. If we add to that what we were borrowing from the Social Security trust fund, then it came to about $160 billion, more deficit at that time than we have this year. We actually paid down the debt to the public this past year by $60 billion. We expect that this current fiscal year, the 1999 fiscal year, we will reduce the debt to the public, the public debt, by an additional $62 billion. It is not as good as it should be. We are still borrowing some of that money from the Social Security trust fund for other spending. I wish my colleagues would join me in cosponsoring my bill that stops the government from borrowing this money and leaving simple IOUs. Look, the point is that we have got a good start. We have got a smaller deficit by $260 billion than we had 4 years ago.”