Gilbert Gutknecht: “The point is, we have all of a sudden been confronted with some expenditures, whether it was in agriculture or other…”

“The point is, we have all of a sudden been confronted with some expenditures, whether it was in agriculture or other emergencies here in the United States, and people say, what about the Census? The Census is not an emergency. That is correct, but do Members know what, for some reason, and it was an honest mistake I believe on the parts of all the negotiators, when we negotiated the balanced budget agreement in 1997 with the White House, which in itself was an historic agreement, and I was there the day the President signed it, but for some reason we did not include that $4 billion in our future spending plans, so some way or another we have to figure out a way to pay for it. Whether we call it an emergency or take it in regular spending, it still amounts to total spending. What we have said is, we are going to limit total discretionary spending to about $592 billion. That is still a lot of money, and I am convinced in my bones that there is more than enough money in that budget to meet the legitimate needs of the Federal government and everybody who depends upon it. There is not enough room in there for all of this fraud and waste and some of the things Members have been talking about. But the point I want to make is we have made it more difficult on ourselves to balance the budget because we have lowered the bar with the social security trust fund.”