[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 137 (Tuesday, September 27, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 27, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                  A REVOLUTION IS SWEEPING THE COUNTRY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania [Mr. Weldon] for 4 minutes.
  (Mr. WELDON asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. WELDON. Mr. Speaker, I could not help, as I sat in my office this 
morning listening to some of the rhetoric on the House floor today, to 
come over and share some thoughts with our constituents across this 
country and my own constituents in Pennsylvania.
  Why, they would ask, would we hear members of the majority party 
attacking the action going on right as we speak on the steps of the 
Capitol Building? Why would they be so upset? Why would they rail and 
squirm about a plan to provide a contract with the American people?
  Mr. Speaker, the answer is very simple. There is a revolution 
sweeping this country. You see, for 40 years the majority party had the 
best of all worlds. When they had a Republican President, they could 
always blame the President for America's problems. Too much spending? 
It is all the President's fault. It is not the Congress where all the 
spending is occurring, it is the President.
  We have not had a situation in the last 40 years where the Republican 
Party has controlled the House, the Senate, and the White House.
  Mr. Speaker, the American people have suddenly awakened, because for 
the last 2 years they have seen a Democrat House, a Democrat Senate, 
and a Democrat President. The response is a revolution sweeping the 
country.
  Mr. Speaker, who would ever have thought 4 years ago that the next 
mayor of New York City would be a Republican or the next mayor of Los 
Angeles would be a Republican or Jersey City, NJ, would be a 
Republican? Who would have thought in the special senatorial elections 
in Georgia, after President Clinton took office, that a Republican 
would win, or a Republican woman in Texas would claim the second 
senatorial seat when the Senator at the time, Senator Bentsen, came to 
Washington to work with the Clinton administration? And who would have 
thought during Clinton's first 2 years, despite his personal 
campaigning and that of his wife in New Jersey, Christine Whitman would 
sweep that State with her popularity ratings higher than any other 
Governor in that State at this point in time? Who would ever have 
thought that we would see in Virginia Governor George Allen take over 
that State from a Democrat incumbent Governor? How about down in 
Arkansas, the President's own home State, where for the first time ever 
a Republican won statewide office as a Lieutenant Governor in that 
State? How about the special congressional elections in the Midwest, in 
Oklahoma, when Glenn English stepped down, a Republican won that seat? 
Mr. Speaker, how about when the most respected Member of this body, the 
chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, left us, and we all loved 
him dearly, and for the first time in the history of that district in 
Kentucky a Republican won, and the race was not close. But how about 
last week, Mr. Speaker, as we saw elections where a very active member 
of the majority party lost his own primary and will have a difficult 
time, as the majority party, keeping that seat in the November 
election, and the Speaker of the House only got 35 percent of the vote 
in a four-way primary?

  So, my friends and colleagues, in this body and across the country 
when you wonder why you hear all the spinmeisters and the rhetoric on 
the other side, it is very simple. The revolution is sweeping. Even the 
D triple C, the organization that runs their campaigns, is predicting a 
net loss of 25 seats. Many are predicting as many as 40 to 45 seats.
  Imagine, if you controlled the powers in this beltway for 45 years, 
what you would be doing if the walls were crumbling down around you as 
Members quietly were talking on the railcar, the tram, or in the 
hallways about what is happening in America. The revolution is here, 
and the revolution is building, and no amount of special-interest money 
can stop it.
  This November is going to see America change in a way that none of us 
has seen in our lifetime. I am only 47 years old. We are going to sweep 
this country, because the American people have had enough. The big lie 
has worn out.
  Mr. Speaker, the majority party controls all the components of the 
Federal Government, and the American people have said, ``We have had 
enough.''
  From the statehouses to the city halls to the county commissioner 
chambers to the Senate and to the House, the American people are saying 
it is time to give the Republican Party a chance to govern America.

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