John Spratt: “Mr. Speaker, in a week, just a week, the government will declare a budget surplus for the first time in 30 years. This…”

“Mr. Speaker, in a week, just a week, the government will declare a budget surplus for the first time in 30 years. This is a landmark achievement, and in large measure it is the result of rigorous budget rules that Congress enacted in 1990, in 1993, and in 1997, which were followed consistently. Now, on the verge of the first surplus in 30 years, the House is about to throw budget discipline to the wind and dissipate the surplus before we have even declared it, even put it in our pockets and realized it. When we did the budget summit agreement with President Bush in 1990, we adopted something we call colloquially the pay-as-you-go rule. Congress extended that rule in 1993, we extended it again in 1997, because it has worked. It has been the foundation of our fiscal discipline, and it has been a major factor in bringing the budget to balance. Under that statutory rule, increases in entitlement spending or decreases in taxes have to be fully offset. If not offset, the initiatives have to be paid for. They are entered on a pay-go scorecard, and money is sequestered at the end of the fiscal year which otherwise would go to the farm program or Medicare or Medicaid, certain selected entitlement programs. We all know there is a unified budget surplus over the next 5 years, but we also know that when the surpluses in the social security trust funds are backed out, the budget is in deficit by $137 billion.”