[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 13 (Monday, January 23, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H485]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        LISTEN CLOSELY TO CICERO

  (Mr. HOKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, the idea that the budget should be balanced is 
not new; although judging from the gnashing of teeth and wringing of 
hands that we have heard from the other side of the aisle it is 
downright revolutionary; but in fact it is an idea that is older than 
the Founding Fathers. Listen closely to what the Roman statesman Cicero 
had to say on the subject in 63 B.C. It sounds like it was written 
today:

       The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be 
     refilled, public debt should be reduced. The arrogance of 
     officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the 
     assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome 
     become bankrupt.

  I would say to my Democrat colleagues to pay special heed to Cicero's 
words concerning the arrogance of officialdom, as it was that, as much 
as anything else, that led to their party's decline and fall, and as 
for us Republicans, we must keep in mind that we are the agents of the 
people who sent us here, not their masters, and we must keep our 
promises to them to pass a balanced budget amendment, pass an unfunded 
mandates bill, and reduce the size and power of government.


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