Gilbert Gutknecht: “we talk about the 104th Congress as being a historic Congress. Well, we have an opportunity in this Congress to do…”

“we talk about the 104th Congress as being a historic Congress. Well, we have an opportunity in this Congress to do something historic as well: to present the American people with an honest and responsible balanced budget plan. The President and the Congress are having important budget negotiations right now. We have an opportunity. We can balance the budget by the year 2002. We can show decreasing deficits as we move toward that balanced budget. We can provide permanent tax relief for hard-working American families. We can solve the problem of the Social Security and the Medicare trust funds. And finally, and most importantly, we can lay the foundations for eliminating the national debt and leave our kids a debt-free future. Mr. Speaker, these are principles and issues that are worth fighting for, and I think they are principles we can all agree to. This is a chance for us to set a higher standard, to make good on our promises of actually changing the way Washington does business, and simply do the right thing for our seniors, for our children, for everyone. Let us seize the day.”