Willie Hefner: “He said we can cut one penny, but they do not cut 1 percent. We have two-thirds of the budget that is untouchable.…”

“He said we can cut one penny, but they do not cut 1 percent. We have two-thirds of the budget that is untouchable. Members know that. We have been around here a long while. The Speaker asked this morning if Members cannot find 1 percent, but that is not 1 percent they are going to find. In 1993, and one of the gentlemen last night, and I will not call names, he got up and said that was a disaster, that the only thing that got this economy moving again was when we elected the new Republicans. That is not true. In 1993, without one single Republican vote in the House or the Senate, we passed a package that got this economy moving, with interest rates down, low unemployment. Members can talk whatever they like about it, but something made it happen. That is the only thing we did, and that is what made it happen to make this possible for us to even have a surplus to talk about. But at that time, let me just quote what some of the folks in the Republican Party said about that package that we passed. In fact, when it passed, a woman that voted for it, they stood on that side and said, ``Bye-bye, bye-bye, you are going to lose because of that.'' So they go out and spread the stuff that we had raised taxes on low-income people, which we did not. Mr. Chairman, we raised taxes on 2 percent of the wealthiest people in this country, and Ronald Reagan said 50 percent of Social Security, that was to be taxed.…”