John Spratt: “I do not like to rain on anybody's parade, but I have to predict, as the parts of this contract which were passed…”

“I do not like to rain on anybody's parade, but I have to predict, as the parts of this contract which were passed separately are pieced together, I am afraid we are going to find that all the pieces do not fit. Particularly I think there is going to be a misfit when it comes to fitting together revenues and expenditures, the budget, and fulfilling the prediction of a balanced budget by the year 2002. I say that because yesterday in the final act of this contract we adopted a bill called H.R. 1215, which will reduce the tax revenues that flow into the Government by $189 billion over the next 5 years and by $630 billion over the next 10 years. I think it is fair to ask here in the Congress, out in the country, how do we do that? How do we cut taxes by $630 billion and increase defense spending as the contract seems to promise or at least hold defense spending constant and at the same time bring the budget into balance by the year 2002?”