Bobby Scott

So in other words, they have not only failed to acknowledge a problem, they are actually, with their policies, making the problem worse?

Well, I would just ask the gentleman, we have outlined what some would think would be quite a crisis. If you look at this chart, something happened in 2001: we passed all of those tax cuts. I would just ask the gentleman from South…

In other words, what the gentleman is saying is that he started with a surplus; he is now in a deficit, only promises to eliminate half the deficit; and he probably will not even be able to do that.

And, Mr. Speaker, just a few years later, look at where we are. The President, down in the ditch where we are now, has promised to reduce the deficit 50 percent. First of all, how modest a goal is that from someone who inherited a $5…

So that means we spend the Social Security plus, and then spend even more than that after we have spent the surplus?

In the final years of the Clinton administration we had the Social Security and Medicare surplus and we were talking about a lockbox where that would be put to save Social Security and Medicare without spending it; is that right?

Now, Mr. Speaker, could the gentleman show me where Social Security and Medicare present surpluses are on that chart?

Does the gentleman have a chart that shows what the surpluses were supposed to be and what the annual deficits look like?

And we have an average of $900 billion overspending from what was projected every year for the 10-year period?

I would ask if the entire take of the individual income tax, is that not about $800 billion?

The gentleman mentioned 9/11. It seems to me that it is fair to have been surprised in September of 2001 or maybe later that you suffered 9/11. Does the gentleman find it surprising that people still appear to be surprised that 9/11…

Would the gentleman remind us what the 10-year surplus was projected to be at the beginning of this administration?

Let me ask one more question. The gentlemen mentions interest on the national debt. I remember in 2001 when this administration came in, when Chairman Greenspan was testifying, the questions he had to answer were along the lines of should…

And if you cut mandatory spending and the education budget, the only thing you have for school lunches and student loans, that is the only thing you can cut under that program. {time} 2310

Did they direct the Education and Workforce Committee to cut mandatory spending?

What the gentleman suggested was, if someone has overwhelming medical bills, hundreds of thousands in medical bills, that they can file under Chapter 7. That is not true. If they have a job and they have $100 a month left over after…

I would like to respond very quickly. If medical expenses wipe you out and you cannot pay them, under this bill you cannot get into chapter 7 if you can pay $166 a month on your bills, however much they are. There could be hundreds of…

So during those years, we had fiscal responsibility. We could not spend money unless we paid for it; we could not cut taxes unless we cut spending; and maintaining that fiscal responsibility kept that line going up. And, at the top of that…

Cutting the deficit in half within 5 years is certainly a modest goal. Is it not true that the projected surpluses that we started off this administration with would have created $5 trillion in surplus? Yet according to the first chart you…

If we put more money into prevention, we would not have to build those two new prisons as we have to today.

I would just point out that my concerns with parts of the amendment are outweighed by the support of the other provisions in the other bills in the bloc. So I will not be opposing the bloc.

There is one bill, the firefighters bill, that is in here, we considered that, and we had a debate on it. I just want to incorporate by reference the problems with that legislation. It is not necessary because firefighters can receive…

Mr. Chairman, in 2001, we considered this provision when we put it in the PATRIOT Act. It was inconsistent with an older version. We need to consider whether we want to conform the law to the newer version or to the older version. That is…

I would say to the chairman, I think I agree with him on Puerto Rico, but disagree with regard to the Virgin Islands and others. If we could agree that the legislative intent is to make sure there will be some recourse, we could have that…

And, Mr. Speaker, the most unseemly part of what is going on is, as the interest on the national debt gets bigger and bigger, and, as I earlier indicated, the individual income tax only generates about $800 billion, we are paying $200…