John Spratt: “Mr. Chairman, let me address the last remark made by my good friend, the Majority Leader, the gentleman from Texas (Mr.…”

“Mr. Chairman, let me address the last remark made by my good friend, the Majority Leader, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), by saying that the budget resolution we will bring to the floor as a substitute for the House Republican resolution will generate a lower deficit, that is right, a lower deficit every year from 2005 through 2014. As a result, the resolution that we offer will accumulate $1.24 trillion less debt over a 10-year period of time, 2005 through 2014, than the President's budget. Finally, and most importantly, our budget will go to balance, our budget will be in balance, in 8 years, in the year 2012. Lower deficits, less debt, a balanced budget by the year 2012. That is what we set out to do. Because, you see, Mr. Chairman, we can remember where we were just 3 short years ago. We can remember that 3 short years ago we were in surplus in fiscal year 2001 by $127 billion. We were in surplus the year before, the last full fiscal year of the Clinton administration, by $236 billion, an unprecedented fiscal performance. President Clinton inherited a deficit of over $290 billion, and every year over 8 years the bottom line of the budget got better, better and better, due to two different budget plans we adopted and imposed during the 1990s; and by the year 2000, we had an unprecedented surplus of $236 billion. We want to go back to where we were when we were running the budget in the black.”