[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 110 (Monday, July 10, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H6703-H6704]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   COST OF GOVERNMENT DAY CELEBRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Bartlett] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, July 9, was the 
kind of day when you did not know whether you should laugh or cry. It 
was a kind of day when you did not know whether you should mourn or 
celebrate. You see yesterday, July 9, was Government Free Day. Up until 
yesterday every American worked full-time just to pay for the costs of 
government. Until about mid-May we all worked to pay the costs of 
Federal, State, and local taxes, and then incredibly, incredibly from 
mid-May until July 9, every American worked full-time just to pay the 
cost of unfunded Federal mandates. It was the day on which one would 
cry and mourn that he had spent so much of his time working for 
government. But it was also a day in which we could look forward to 
today; you might celebrate that, the first day on which you could earn 
any money for yourself.
  The average American this year worked a bit more than 189 days to pay 
for the cost of government. He has left just a bit more than 175 days 
to do all the things that one needs to do. Father and mother work to 
pay the mortgage, save money for an education, to prepare for their 
retirement, to take care of their sicknesses, and all of this has to be 
done in 175 days after working a bit more than 189 days for the 
government.
  Let us kind of put this in perspective. According to Prof. Charles 
Adams, author of ``For Good and Evil,'' which is a history of taxation 
published in 1933, peasant serfs in the Mongol Empire in the period of 
Genghis Khan had to give their feudal lords just one-tenth of what they 
produced. When you consider how oppressed we think those people were in 
giving one-tenth of their income, what do you have to say about us who 
had to work about 52 percent of this year to pay for the cost of 
government?
  In the last two elections it was a revolution that began at the 
polling places, and all across America Americans said enough is enough, 
and they voted to begin to return this country to that vision of our 
forefathers. The kind of government that they envisioned was stated by 
Thomas Jefferson when he indicated that the government which governs 
best is the government which governs least. We have got to be about a 
million miles from that dream of Thomas Jefferson, and that Abraham 
Lincoln in a period of crisis in our country said it just as well. He 
said it differently. He said that government should only do for its 
citizens what they cannot do for themselves.
  Someone has said that considering how ineffective government is, how 
much it has interfered with our families, how much it has depreciated 
the business environment, that we ought to be thankful that we do not 
get all the government that we pay for. If government was efficient and 
effective in doing what it does, it would have done even more damage to 
our families and to our economy.
  Another thing that really causes one to stop and think is the 
realization that after 7 years of balancing the budget, as my colleague 
from Texas indicated just a little earlier, we will have moved back the 
Cost of Government Day just 17 days. I do not think that that is what 
Americans had in mind when they went to the polling places these last 
two elections and began this revolution.
  Moving back the Cost of Government Day just 17 days after 7 years; 
that is not enough. That is not what Americans had in mind. We have 
just begun this battle to take back our country and to return it to the 
kind of country envisioned by our forefathers. Think about it, America.

[[Page H 6704]]

  Think about July 9. Think about spending 52 percent of your time 
working for government. Think about that when you go to the polls and 
the next election to continue this revolution.

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