Scott Klug: “Paul Tsongas said it years ago, let me repeat it tonight. I am not Santa Claus. I wish I was. I wish I could vote for…”

“Paul Tsongas said it years ago, let me repeat it tonight. I am not Santa Claus. I wish I was. I wish I could vote for this tax package and tuck a $1,000 refund check in all of the stockings hung with care from the mantle. For that matter, I wish I were the Easter Bunny tonight and could hide baskets of goodies in the backyard bushes, but I cannot, folks, because it is my job tonight to play the role of grinch and remind everybody in this Chamber that we are flat-out broke. Now, there are a lot of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle tonight who suddenly have found religion in deficit reduction, and we will see just where they are come May, because we know where they have been in the past. I will be delighted to vote for the budget package and help the chairman, the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Kasich], and do everything I can in my will to pass this tough deficit-reduction plan. I understand, as John Kennedy did, that capital gains breaks help grow the economy and help small businessmen and farmers back in Wisconsin, and IRA's will help average families save more for retirement. And if that is all this bill was about tonight, I would be glad to lead the charge up San Juan Hill. Instead, what I hear tonight is not necessarily an assault on the deficit. I am afraid it is a retreat from deficit reduction. The cuts are not specified. The tax cuts are too generous. The timing in a robust economy, I believe, is all wrong.”