Sylvester Turner: “the Republican tax message is one that we cannot trust Congress to act responsibly with the surplus. They say, get the…”

“the Republican tax message is one that we cannot trust Congress to act responsibly with the surplus. They say, get the money out of town before it even arrives here yet. Is it not a little bit ironic to think their theme is one cannot trust the Congress to manage money wisely, when they in fact are in the majority? Do my colleagues not think that we could be disciplined enough just to run one true budget surplus before we spend what we do not even have yet? If a business had borrowed money from a bank to operate for 25 years straight and for the first time in 25 years showed a small profit, would we not think we would try to pay down that huge debt? Two weeks ago this House had a historic opportunity that every businessman and woman understands. That is, when faced with a choice of paying down the debt or spending the surplus, we should pay down the debt. We had a motion on the floor that would dedicate 50 percent of the on-budget surplus to paying down the debt, 25 percent to tax cuts, 25 percent to priority spending needs such as Medicare and Social Security. Today we are trying again. Where have all the fiscal conservatives gone in the Republican Party? Fiscal conservatives do not spend money that we do not even have yet. Fiscal conservatives do not ignore the advice of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Fiscal conservatives do not gamble with our economic security, our health security, our retirement security.”