Rob Andrews: “I am one of the people who voted for the underlying bill. I think it is excellent in many ways. I agree with the…”

“I am one of the people who voted for the underlying bill. I think it is excellent in many ways. I agree with the gentleman from Maryland's analysis and the gentleman from Ohio's analysis of the underlying bill. But I am not going to vote for this extension today, and I would adopt the reasoning that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm) put forward just a few minutes ago. Right now for every $100 that we are spending to run our government, we are bringing in $80 worth of revenue. We are borrowing the other $20. We are borrowing about half of it from the Social Security trust fund, and we are going to borrow the other half from the private capital markets. I have come to the floor in the last several weeks and voted against a lot of things which I would like to see happen. I would like to see more aid to our exporters, but I voted against the Export-Import Bank reauthorization. I would like to see the marriage penalty permanently done away with, but I voted against the permanent cessation of it. I am one who favors the permanent repeal of the estate tax, but I did not vote for the permanent repeal of the estate tax. And as strongly as I feel about the merits of this underlying bill, and they are very meritorious, I think the principle of doing anything that reduces revenue by borrowing from the Social Security trust fund and from the private capital markets that fuel our economy is a mistake.”