Charles W. Stenholm: “Mr. Speaker, in his State of the Union address, the President told us this country has many problems, and that we will…”

“Mr. Speaker, in his State of the Union address, the President told us this country has many problems, and that we will not deny, we will not ignore, we will not pass along our problems to other Congresses, other presidents, and to other generations. As a proud grandfather who wants to leave a better future for my grandchildren, I applauded that statement; and I applaud it today. Unfortunately, our current budget, our current economic game plan, our current budget policies, would do precisely what we all applauded we should not do. Every dollar of the tax cuts passed by the Senate will be added to our $6.4 trillion debt. At the same time, we are debating another round of tax cuts, the leadership of this House is trying to slip through an increase in our debt limit of nearly $1 trillion, the largest increase in the history of our country. Our total debt in this country in 1979 was less than the amount that we will borrow in a period of less than 2 years. That is what we are objecting to in this motion to instruct conferees. I do not oppose tax cuts.”