Bill Archer: “Mr. Speaker, simply to respond, since Lyndon Johnson was President, we have operated under what is called a unified…”

“Mr. Speaker, simply to respond, since Lyndon Johnson was President, we have operated under what is called a unified budget, and all of the monies that are received by the Federal Government are put into one basket. All of the spending is put into another basket, to determine whether we have a surplus or whether we have a deficit. The debt ceiling relates to that, and the gentleman knows that. The Republicans did not contrive the unified budget. We have lived with what was contrived by President Lyndon Johnson and a Democrat Congress. It has never been argued against, other than, yes, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm), my friend, and a few others have made arguments against it. Valid arguments. But it has never been denied by a majority of the Democrats in the House of Representatives or in the Senate. I suspect that my friend from Texas in the well today voted for the tax bill last year. Did we have a surplus then? Did we have to borrow more money to pay for that tax bill? The answer clearly is 'yes.' It does not need a response. It is clearly 'yes.' But the argument has changed today. The budget concept has changed today on behalf of the leaders in the Democrat party. They want to have it both ways. They want to claim a balanced budget under a unified budget, and then they want to argue, oh, but we do not have a balanced budget. Mr. Speaker, it has to be one way or the other.”