Don Nickles: “I congratulate and compliment my friend and colleague, Senator Domenici, for his statement and also for his leadership…”

“I congratulate and compliment my friend and colleague, Senator Domenici, for his statement and also for his leadership and his innovation. He has come up with an idea to help stimulate the economy that is far superior than some of the proposals being discussed, one of which is to give $300 per individual or $600 per family if they did not get a check last year. Last year, we gave checks to people who paid taxes. Some people were saying, ``Give money to people that did not pay taxes,'' notwithstanding the fact they were eligible for the earned-income tax credit, which, in many cases, was worth 3 or 4 times whatever payroll taxes they might have paid. The position of the Senator from New Mexico is far superior. I happen to be one concerned about deficits and I am concerned about runaway spending. I contacted some individuals and said, we have agreed to 13.3 percent spending growth for next year, but many others say that is not near enough; we need to do more. So I will state a few facts. Last year's spending--the spending we completed in September of 2001, total discretionary spending, the spending we control by appropriations, that fluctuates, whatever we appropriate--was $640 billion, 9.6 percent more than the previous year, which was at $584 billion. The President's budget for 2002, which we have just started for the fiscal year, was to grow at 6.1 percent.”