Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE -- (House of Representatives - November 17, 2005)
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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I hope everybody in America knows, I say to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite), your party has been in charge for all 5 of the years that spending has gone out of control, and your conservatives are telling you just that, including Mr. Dick Armey, your former majority leader. It is you who have allowed spending to go out of control.
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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I tell my friend, the chairman of the Budget Committee, this bill is no picnic.
Mr. Speaker, for 5 years, the Republican Party in Washington has pursued the most irresponsible and dangerous fiscal policies in the history of this country. Today, they claim they are getting tough on spending, that they are restoring fiscal discipline. I suppose that is the fiscal discipline that they threw away over the last 5 years.
I say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, I have been a Member of this House for 25 years. For 17 of those years, there has been a Republican President in the United States of America. The one person that can stop spending in its tracks, none of the rest of us can, we can vote but only one of us in the government can stop spending in its tracks and that is the President of the United States. And during those 17 years that we have had Republican Presidents, every year without exception we have had large deficits. For 8 years, we had a Democratic President, and for 4 years we had surpluses, 4 straight years.
In every single one of those years that the Republican Presidents presided we had large and growing deficits. This bill today will perpetuate that Republican performance.
Five years ago, the Bush administration and this Republican Congress inherited a projected 10-year surplus of $5.6 trillion according to President Bush. President Bush promised the American people when he offered his economic program, ``We can proceed with tax relief without fear of budget deficits even if the economy softens.'' But almost immediately, the Washington Republicans enacted policies that instigated deficit and debt that will immorally force our children to pay our bills and then threaten our Nation's future.
Under President Clinton, we had $559 billion of surplus in his last 4 years. Under your 5 years, I tell the amused chairman of the Budget Committee, you have planned and achieved $1.57 trillion of debt. At the very same time, Republicans have raised the debt limit four times. $4.15 trillion of additional debt during your last 5 years.
Do you know how much during the last 4 years of the Clinton years we raised it? Zero. Zero. You talk about fiscal responsibility and the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas) says you had a Republican majority. Is that not wonderful? My, my, my, you could do it when you had President Clinton as President but you cannot do it when you have President Bush. Is that not a strange thing to happen? In 5 short years they have driven us $3 trillion deeper in debt.
Today Republicans say they want to restore fiscal discipline. All of America must ask, Why do you insult our intelligence?
President Bush has not vetoed one spending bill that you have offered. If spending is out of control, it is out of control because you let it get out of control, you planned to get it out of control, and you passed bills that put it out of control.
Republicans rammed a prescription drug bill through. They told us, which was not true and they knew it not to be true, it was going to cost $395 billion. Why? Because your budget said you were going to spend $400 billion. That was a lie. You knew it was not true. In fact, 2 months later, you came by and said, no, it is 524. Now, it is over a trillion dollars.
You claim that you are cutting spending by $50 billion, but you are coming with a tax bill that is going to cut $57 billion in revenue, a net increase of the deficit. That is why you have had 17 straight years under your Presidents of deficits.
Look at the facts. I implore my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, face fiscal reality. Stop posturing, vote no on this irresponsible bill. Join Democrats in adopting a budget plan as we offered that balanced the budget in ten years. You did not even plan to balance it.
Let me read now a quote. ``We do not touch Social Security. It does not touch Medicare. This budget accomplishes the largest reduction of the debt held by the public in our history. By the end of 10 years of this budget, we will have eliminated the debt held by the public.'' Chairman Jim Nussle, May 25, 2001.
$1.57 trillion in budget deficits and $3 trillion later additional debt on the national debt. The gentleman from Iowa's (Mr. Nussle) representation was totally, absolutely, unconscionably wrong in 2001, and your predictions today are equally in error.
Vote against this bad bill.
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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for the time.
1984, it was Good Morning in America, the economy was growing, President Reagan was President, Bob Dole the Republican the majority leader of the United States Senate, and big deficits, big deficits, big deficits, big deficits, big deficits, big deficits.
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