[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 37 (Tuesday, February 28, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H2316]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                THE CONTRACT: BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD

  (Mr. GEPHARDT asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, for 2 months now, this Congress has been 
held hostage by the extremist trickle-down manifesto known as the 
Contract With America. Democrats have been saying all along that the 
American people do not need this contract. What they need are good jobs 
at good wages, more police to fight the scourge of violent crime, and 
access to affordable health care.
  Republican pollsters who wrote the contract thought they knew better, 
but a New York Times poll published today makes it perfectly clear. If 
the Republicans really want to follow the will of the people, it is 
time to go back to the drawing board. First of all, more than half of 
all Americans have not even heard of the contract. So much for the 
Republican mandate. And on issue after issue, we find a wholesale 
rejection of the contract's extremist planks.
  Americans overwhelmingly want the Federal commitment to 100,000 cops 
on the beat that the Republicans voted down. Americans overwhelmingly 
oppose a balanced budget amendment that puts Social Security on the 
chopping block as the contract does. Americans overwhelmingly oppose 
welfare reform that is tough on children but weak on work.
  I suppose that is the problem with the Republican politics-of-opinion 
polls. When you live by the poll, you also die by the poll.
  Based on today's poll results, I would offer these final words on the 
Contract With America: May it rest in peace, and now let us get down to 
the real business of the American people.


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