Joe Pitts: “earlier this year, Allen Greenspan appeared before one of our committees here on Capitol Hill, and he made it clear that…”

“earlier this year, Allen Greenspan appeared before one of our committees here on Capitol Hill, and he made it clear that increased spending was the worst option for using the budget surplus we have today. He said very clearly that the first thing we should do is pay down the public debt. He said, and I quote, ``If that proves politically infeasible, I would opt for cutting taxes.'' Mr. Speaker, this Nation has a public debt of over $3 trillion. How much is $1 trillion? If we borrowed $1 million a day 7 days a week every year and we began on the day Jesus Christ was born and went until now, we would not yet have $1 trillion. We have the opportunity right now to pay off the public debt, and that is what our Republican Congress wants to do. But the big spenders say we are not spending enough. The President wants $40 billion more than we have appropriated, even though every dollar we do not pay off as debt our children will have to pay interest on. Is there any end to the Clinton-Gore administration's thirst for big government spending?”