John Spratt: “We say it has a $50 black hole, and it is getting bigger by the minute. Mr. Chairman, less than a year ago the House…”

“We say it has a $50 black hole, and it is getting bigger by the minute. Mr. Chairman, less than a year ago the House approved the balanced budget agreement of 1997. It was a good agreement, a bipartisan agreement. It built on the Clinton budget of 1993, which wiped out the deficit, and paved the road for surpluses as far as the eye can see. Our resolution, the Spratt resolution, the Democratic resolution, sticks by that agreement. The spending totals, the revenue totals, all of our numbers are in sync with the balanced budget agreement. We save the surpluses because we want to save Social Security. We spare Medicare from further cuts. In fact, we broaden its coverage, because we believe in Medicare. We protect Medicaid because we believe in Medicaid, and particularly the children's health insurance program, because we are proud of that achievement in the balanced budget agreement last year. We think it would be unconscionable to tell children and their parents that they have coverage at last, only to jerk it away from them the next year. We fund key initiatives in education, in child care, and call for $30 billion in tax relief, tilted towards working families. There is one thing of particular fiscal importance in this bill, in this resolution. On September 30, when we close the books on fiscal 1998, the Federal Government will show a surplus for the first time in 30 years, a surplus of $40 to $60 billion. That surplus was hard-earned, and we think we should husband it.”