John Spratt

Let me make two points before I yield again. First of all, we all believe that disaster relief should be a program of shared sacrifice. We should all want to pitch in and help the people of New Orleans and Bay St. Louis and the gulf coast…

reclaiming my time, I made the point earlier that the cost of catastrophes like Katrina and Rita should be spread over the whole country, the whole population, but spread equitably. And it is not right to saddle that heavy burden on those…

there are various good reasons to vote against CAFTA, but the first is enough and it's basic: this is not a good deal. The U.S. is running unprecedented trade deficits--$618 billion last year, $195 billion this year in the first quarter…

when China joined the WTO, the U.S. and China entered into an ``accession protocol.'' Among other things, that protocol anticipates that the United States may find that China is subsidizing exports, and in that case, the United States may…

let me quickly point out that this should come as no surprise. The President's budget for 2005 cut veterans appropriated funding $248 million below the Congressional Budget Office estimate of what was needed to keep pace for inflation in…

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…

reclaiming my time, I do not think, given his budget policies, it is a realistic statement of what is likely to happen. One can call it a goal if they will, but I do not think it is a goal that is likely to be achieved under the policies…

He did indeed. And then we had a point where we could not come to a conclusion on the budget. As a consequence, the whole government was shut down and President Clinton, upon being reelected said, I do not want to go through that again. I…

I recognize the gentleman and yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cooper).

reclaiming my time, the chart we have here shows graphically exactly what the gentleman is saying, namely, interest just a bit over $150 billion in 2004, the last fiscal year; but by 2010 if the Bush policies are completely implemented…

Absolutely not. And then took the situation by the scruff of the neck the next year and saw to it that we finally brought it to a successful resolution, a phenomenal resolution: a surplus of $236 billion in the year 2000. On that high…

Well, in 1995 and in 1996 we had better and better bottom lines because we had a PAYGO rule, and we had discretionary spending caps.

Well, the administration avows its aversion to debt. And yet it keeps tacking debt on top of debt. The deficit in the year 2003 of $378 billion, a record. A deficit the next year of $412 billion, another record. A deficit this year of $350…

What we have seen in the 1980s and 1990s in coming to grips with the budget deficit, a compelling problem that nevertheless eluded a solution for years, is that unless the administration, the President and the leadership of the Congress…

This would clearly make the problem worse, probably 100 percent worse over this 20-year period of time

Well, if the gentleman will recall, in the late 1980s, we came to this conclusion that we had to have Presidential leadership as well as congressional leadership solidly behind us. And so we sponsored resolutions several years in a row…

Well, the chart that the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott) is holding tells an awful lot. Every year during the Clinton administration, due to those three budget agreements, which the gentleman just described, the bottom line of the…

We did. We offered it on the House floor this past budget season, and we will put it up again. As my colleagues will see, it involves foregoing some of the tax cuts that the Bush administration has pushed through Congress, primarily for…

reclaiming my time, I said earlier that one reason we do not have the sort of moral outrage in the country about the deficit, that people are concerned about it but they do not quite feel and see it, this is the reason why. {time} 1845…

We say we have gone from a projected surplus between 2002 and 2011 of $5.6 trillion to a cumulative deficit, over the same time period, of $3.8 trillion. That is your $9.4 trillion.

this is not the first nor will it be the last time that we take the floor of the House here in the well of the House to address a problem that is of great concern to all of us, and that is the budget deficit. This year past, it was $412…

as I understood the gentleman from Pennsylvania, my good friend (Mr. Murtha), he is offering us a deal, namely, if we will withdraw the amendment, he will endeavor to raise nonproliferation to a level that is commensurate with the need…

In any event, let me suggest simply that we ask ourselves, which is a more likely threat, that we be attacked by ICBM with a return signature on it, or by some stealthy terrorist in the back of a paneled truck with some hidden device in…

there is $7.8 billion provided for this program, vastly more than any other program in the budget. We are shaving it at the edges and putting it into an area where I think we would all agree there is a critical threat and a real need.

before mentioning my amendment, let me also commend the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha), the chairman of the subcommittee and the ranking member. There are not two Members of the House…