Lloyd Bentsen: “I rise today to point out a case of unfortunate and blatant hypocrisy on the part of the majority. The Congress created…”

“I rise today to point out a case of unfortunate and blatant hypocrisy on the part of the majority. The Congress created the Congressional Budget Office 23 years ago so that the House and Senate would have an impartial and independent source for budget forecast. Since its creation the Congress under both Republican and Democratic control and divided control between the House and Senate has respected the CBO's independence. In return for that independence CBO has served the Congress well by providing us with honest estimates of the budgetary effects of spending and taxing proposals. Today that independence is threatened by partisan politics. Just last week the gentleman from Georgia, Speaker Gingrich, and the Republican leadership threatened the CBO because their budget forecasts do not square with the irresponsible budget resolution passed by the House. Truth be known, Houdini could not create the magic budget forecast necessary to make this budget resolution work. In his letter to the CBO Speaker Gingrich and the House leadership wrote that 'CBO's low estimates have been consistently wrong and wrong by a country mile.'”