[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 23 (Monday, February 6, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1220]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        REDUCE FEDERAL SPENDING

  (Mr. BAKER of California asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BAKER of California. Mr. Speaker, if it is one thing the American 
people have had their fill of, it is seeing their hard-earned tax 
dollars squandered on frivolous special interest projects. Whether it 
is a $500 toilet seat for the military or $100 million interstate to 
nowhere, the American people have had it with paying for someone else's 
pork.
  Up until now America's real pork producers, referring, of course, to 
Congress, has buried their pet pork projects in important legislation. 
That is why our line-item veto is such an important part of the 
Contract With America. It gives the President the power to search out 
and destroy wasteful spending before it starts.
  With the line-item veto, the buck isn't all that stops at the 
President's desk. The pork stops there too. Several minutes ago the 
President delivered to Congress his budget, which is out of balance by 
over $210 billion, the 27th year in a row.
  It is time the President and Congress worked together to reduce 
Federal spending. When Mr. Clinton ran for President, he said he wanted 
a line-item veto. Our Contract With America gives him just that.
  Happy birthday, Ronald Reagan.

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