[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 57 (Tuesday, March 28, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H3860-H3861]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         CONTRACT WITH AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Zimmer). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Kingston] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to talk a little bit about the 
Contract With America. I think it is very important that folks 
understand that the Contract With America was a campaign promise, and 
it is a promise which, unlike previous campaigns and previous promises, 
it is a promise that Republican Members of the House are keeping with 
them. We are looking at it daily. It is the instruction.
  You may not agree with Contract With America, but I think what is 
important is that here is a fundamental contract, a handshake with the 
American people saying when we say we are going to do something, we are 
going to do it.
  Now, the Senate is going to debate it. They are going to change some 
things. It is going to come back to the House, and we are going to have 
some changes. But I think it is very important to remember that the 
Contract was a campaign pledge and a promise that we are not going to 
forget, unlike other times in office when many, many members of both 
parties would make certain campaign warranties or promises and then 
forget them after they are elected.
  This contract is different. One of the key planks of that is that we 
are going to get these issues on the floor of the House for a vote. It 
does not necessarily guarantee passage on everything, but getting them 
to the floor of the House, as the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. 
Hilleary] had said just a few minutes ago, is the key element, and that 
is what we are doing with term limits.
  It is going to take 290 votes because it is a constitutional 
amendment. That is a lot of votes. And we are working with Democrats. 
We are working with 
[[Page H3861]] Republicans. We are working with senior Members, working 
with freshman Members, trying to get that passed.
  Now, the Hilleary amendment, what is so good about it and why I think 
it is important that this House support it is because it does two 
things. It says that you will have a 12-year limit, but also if States 
have individual term limits, 8 years, 6 years, 10 years or whatever, 
they can keep their own State law in place to self-impose term limits 
that are different as long as they do not go over the 12 limit. Now, I 
am going to support that.
  I am also going to support the McCollum bill. Mr. McCollum of Florida 
has a bill that sets a 12-year term limit, and it is a uniform bill. 
The thing that I believe is important about that is that Congressman 
McCollum has introduced term limits, I believe, every year since he 
personally has been a member of this body and has been out there as a 
lone wolf crying in the wind for term limits far before it was popular.
  I think that it is great that finally, after all these years of him 
coming up, and there were others along with him who supported term 
limits, finally he is going to get a vote on it. And I plan to support 
both these bills and both these versions, and I hope we do get 290 
votes on one of them so that we can move the legislation for him.
  Now another key element of the Contract With America that is going to 
be coming up is the tax stimulus. This tax stimulus, unlike the Clinton 
stimulus 2 years ago which was a tax increase, this is a tax decrease. 
You know, this gets a lot of people nervous because the American 
Federal system of government has been robbing taxpayers for so many 
years now.
  You know, in the 1950's the average American family paid 2 percent 
Federal income tax. Today that same American family pays 24 percent 
Federal income tax. Now that, along with all your intangible tax, your 
sales tax, your local option sales tax, insurance premium tax, utility 
tax, State income tax, in some cases municipal income taxes, these have 
been going up.
  The average American family right not is paying 40 to 50 percent of 
their income in taxes. I believe it is time to return that money back 
to their pockets, and I would rather trust my constituents to spend 
their own money than some of the bureaucrats that I have seen up here. 
Because the bureaucrats, when they get their money, they overspend. 
They sit around and come up with new regulations, new ways to take 
freedom away from Americans.
  But I promise you, as we know it with a study of economics, that 
lowering taxes will stimulate the economy because people will have more 
disposable income. They will buy more shoes, more clothes, more 
hamburgers, more cars, ultimately more houses. When they do that, jobs 
are created because businesses have to expand to create the new demand. 
When that happens, more people are working; and revenues go up.
  This was proven in 1980 with the Reagan tax cuts, 1982 actually, but 
1980 the revenues to the Federal Government were $500 million and in 
1990 they were over a trillion dollars. Unfortunately, the spending 
outpaced revenues so we still had runaway deficits during that time 
period.
  I would certainly say that that is a bipartisan problem. You had the 
Democrats controlling the House, but part of the time the Republicans 
controlled the Senate and the White House, so it is a bipartisan 
problem.
  But these tax cuts are designed to create jobs which will increase 
revenues. And when that happens, Mr. Speaker, with all the reductions 
that we are doing we will be able to pay down the debt, reduce the 
deficit and turn this country around, which I think is extremely 
important for us to do.
  So I am proud to be here tonight, and I am proud to support both term 
limits and a tax decrease that will stimulate the economy.

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