David Thomas: “It is interesting to stand here beside these budgets that have gone on for 26 years--this is less than that--and to then…”

“It is interesting to stand here beside these budgets that have gone on for 26 years--this is less than that--and to then have to say we have not balanced the budget in all that time. Yet, we hear constantly that we do not need to do anything differently than we have been doing. It is hard to imagine that you are going to have different results if you do not do something different. I was interested in the comments of the Senator from North Dakota. Each of us has a little different idea about what has happened and what has occurred in terms of economics. Each of us has a little different idea about why we made some progress over the last several years in reducing the deficit. Certainly one reason is we raised taxes so that the average payment of taxes in this country is now about 40 percent of the income to families. You can balance the budget that way if you want to continue to let Government grow. Continue to raise taxes; that is a way to balance the budget. That is partly what this whole discussion is about. Interestingly enough, the Senator talked about the balanced budget amendment looting Social Security. I was going to ask the Senator, if he was still here, whether Social Security income is in the budget that he talks about that the President is going to balance by 2003. Of course it is there. All the trust funds are there that he says you cannot put into a balanced budget amendment. They are in the budget that the Senator brags about balancing.”