John Spratt: “PAYGO is shorthand for a rule we adopted in 1991 and helped us achieve the phenomenal fiscal results I just showed the…”

“PAYGO is shorthand for a rule we adopted in 1991 and helped us achieve the phenomenal fiscal results I just showed the Members, where every year from 1993 to the year 2000, we had a better bottom line and a surplus of $236 billion in the year 2000. PAYGO simply provides that if we want to have a tax cut when we have got a deficit, it has to be deficit neutral. That is to say the tax cut must be offset by a tax increase somewhere else within the Tax Code, or we must go to an entitlement program, which is permanent spending, and cut it enough to offset the loss of revenues. By the same token, if we want to increase or improve a new entitlement, we have to identify a revenue stream or other entitlement cuts to pay for it. It has to be, bottom line, deficit neutral.”