[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 23348]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



       IT IS TIME TO GROW UP, SIT DOWN, AND COME UP WITH A BUDGET

  (Mr. GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, for days I have stood here on the 
floor also sitting and watching on C-SPAN my Republican colleagues 
attack the President's budget and attack Democrats for spending Social 
Security dollars, and I knew they were playing fast and loose with 
their own spending plans.

  First, they declare the census to be an emergency so it does not come 
under the budget. Then they pass a tax cut bill that they promised but 
they cannot deliver on over the next 10 years. Then they float the idea 
that, well, we cannot do it so let us add a 13th month; some of the 
most ludicrous things we have ever heard. Now they finally are finding 
out that what they have been saying and the height of cynicism for our 
government is that they are spending the Social Security surplus, $18 
billion. It is reported in today's Washington Post and we can see it 
here but I am sure it will be in all of our local newspapers. It is 
just in the national media and our local media, $18 billion in Social 
Security trust funds they are going to use. Yet they have been accusing 
the President and the Democrats of doing it.

  Why do my colleagues not grow up, and we will sit down and work this 
out between us instead of trying to make hype out of it? Why do we not 
just pass a bill that will take the trust funds out of the unified 
Federal budget?

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