Elizabeth Furse: “I think that the people who are not able to pay their rent this month or maybe the ones who are not going to make their…”

“I think that the people who are not able to pay their rent this month or maybe the ones who are not going to make their mortgage payments are going to remember this time. As my colleagues know, a lot of speakers have talked from this side about this balanced budget. Well, I think we have to separate the balanced budget from keeping the Government open. I want to talk a little bit though about this balanced budget. When Ronald Reagan became President of this country, the deficit was $74 billion. When President Bush left office, the deficit was $300 billion. When Bill Clinton became President, it was $300 billion, and today, thanks to the President's budget of 1993, the deficit is half, is $161 billion, half what it was then. But it is very interesting because there was not one Republican vote for that budget, that budget which has reduced the deficit by half. OK, now they say to us, especially the new Republicans--well, they have not been here very long so I understand they are not sure of all the things that are going on, but let me tell you. They say we are going to keep this Government closed unless we have a balanced budget. Well, their memories are very short because there was a balanced budget offered on this floor, a 7-year balanced budget, a 7-year balanced budget with CBO scoring. They did not vote for it. Why? Because it did not have that $245 billion tax break for the wealthy.”