[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 33 (Wednesday, February 22, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H2031-H2032]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


     THE 104TH CONGRESS DELIVERS THE LEGISLATION AMERICA HAS WANTED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Scarborough] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCARBOROUGH. Mr. Speaker, I do agree with the previous speakers 
that now is the time for action, and that is exactly what we have been 
doing. I heard a previous speaker tell us that this Contract With 
America was a rush to extremism, I don't understand that, and a rush 
away from the middle class. I don't understand that.
  When we look at poll after poll, survey after survey, everybody out 
there is agreeing on the very concepts that we are bringing to the 
floor these first 50 days.
  We have pushed through a balanced budget amendment that the middle 
class wanted. We have pushed through a line-item veto. We have pushed 
through a National Security Revitalization Act. We have pushed through 
unfunded mandate reform. We have pushed through congressional reform.
  Everybody--the vast majority of Americans--have been begging for this 
for years, and it has been the Democratic-controlled Congress that has 
been denying Americans from coast-to-coast the type of legislation that 
they have been wanting. We have been delivering it for the first 50 
days, and for anybody to stand up here and say that it is a rush to 
extremism ignores political reality in this country.
  It has been a rush to the middle class, a rush back to the values 
that Americans have been begging for in their leadership, a rush back 
to the type of principles that Americans have been begging for.
  Just imagine it, in 50 days we now have a Congress that has to abide 
by the same laws that they make all of American abide by. Just imagine, 
in the first 50 days, we now have a balanced budget amendment that has 
been passed from this House that requires the Federal Government to 
abide by the same laws that Americans have to abide by in writing their 
checks.
  We cannot spend more money than we take in, according to our balanced 
budget amendment. What is so extreme about that? What is so extreme 
about cutting committee staff by one-third? What is so extreme about 
cutting congressional staff from 21 down to 16? There is nothing 
extreme about it.
  This is what America has demanded. This is what America has asked 
for. This is what liberals have denied America from so long, and this 
is what we are delivering on. There is nothing extreme about the 
Contract With America, or this legislation that has been passed.
  For all those pollsters and pundits and political experts out there 
that are trying to figure out why there was a conservative landslide on 
November 8, all you have to do is look at the leadership on the other 
side of the aisle and listen to what they have been talking about, 
saying that these measures are extremism. Come on, who are they 
fooling?
  They are saying that they have nothing to do with jobs or income or 
health. Who do they think they are fooling? Anybody knows that when you 
cut regulations, when you put the type of regulatory reform on the 
table that we have put on the table, you are going to save jobs. You 
are going to create jobs. You are going to take the handcuffs off of 
small business men and women across this country, and allow them to 
create jobs.
  When you pass a taxpayer protection plan that we passed the first day 
of Congress, that requires this body to pass new tax increases by a 
three-fifths vote in the 104th Congress, you are saving jobs and you 
are saving income from a middle class and a lower class 
[[Page H2032]]  and a higher class that was not protected from the 
free-spending liberals for so long.
  Mr. Speaker, when you pass the type of health care reform that we 
passed last night, where you are allowing citizens to deduct 25 percent 
of their health care insurance bills, like we did last night, you are 
protecting Americans. You are bringing things back to the table, back 
to Congress, that actually make a difference.
  To say that this is a rush to extremism, or to say that this is Newt 
Gingrich's radical Contract With America, simply is not true, and 
denies reality in this country. This is not a rush to extremism, this 
is a recognition of what America has so sorely needed for 40 years. We 
have had real leadership, we have had real change, and we have a real 
reason to tell America that Congress again works.
  If we were so off the beaten path, if we were being so radical, then 
why would the country's approval rating of Congress storm up from 18 
percent to almost 50 percent today, on the 50th day? The reason why is 
obvious, because we are doing what Americans have elected us to do. We 
are making a difference.
  This is not about ideology, it is about what works, and just wait for 
the second 50 days. You ain't seen nothing yet.

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