Richard Gephardt: “I urge Members to vote for the motion to recommit and, if that fails, against this legislation. Last year, the…”

“I urge Members to vote for the motion to recommit and, if that fails, against this legislation. Last year, the Republicans passed their economic plan. Due to their plan, we lost $4 trillion in surplus in about 15 months. We lost the opportunity for long-term economic growth. We lost the chance to promote opportunity in people's lives. And, most importantly, we lost the chance to pay down the debt and be ready to stabilize and take care of Social Security for the baby boomers. But, worst of all, the plan was dishonest. When you presented the plan, you could have gone ahead and not had a sunset in the plan and made the tax cut go out into the future, which is what you are trying to do today. I believe you did that because you wanted to mislead the American people and the Congress on what was actually happening. You had another chance when you presented your budget a few weeks ago to say that the tax cut should not have a sunset, that it should go out into the future. Once again, you did not do it. You did not do it because we are already back into the Social Security trust funds spending those dollars for current revenue needs. We are already back into the Social Security trust fund spending those dollars for current needs. We passed in this House five times a lockbox that said we would never spend the Social Security funds. Majority Whip DeLay vowed the people's hard-earned money would be saved so they can enjoy their well-deserved retirement.”