[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 138 (Thursday, September 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H8669]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                       AMERICANS WANT CHANGE NOW

  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 went home for the August recess and a 
funny thing happened before I went home for the August recess. I 
listened to all these political pundits in Washington, read Wall Street 
Journal articles that said this is the most revolutionary House of 
Representatives session since Reconstruction. I heard people telling us 
day in and day out we were too radical, revolutionary, too extreme, we 
were moving too fast.
  Then I went home, and I held 30 town hall meetings across my 
district. I made over 100 speeches across my district. I talked to 
editorial boards, I went on talk radio, I went on TV. I worked my 
district for over 30 days and talked to more people in my district than 
I bet any other elected official has ever worked the district in 30 
days in northwest Florida, and the message I got from them was quite 
different than the message I get from reading the Washington Post or 
listening to Peter Jennings.
  They said what are you doing up there? Nothing is happening. You guys 
need to push it forward. You need to push change. We sent you up to 
Washington, DC. in November to make a difference and make a change. 
Now, do something.
  I will tell you, it was a rude awakening. It shows how there is an 
incredible disconnect between Washington, DC. speak and what people in 
middle America are saying, and in the area that political pundits 
consider fly-over space between Washington, DC and Hollywood, CA.
  Let me tell you something: The same voter anger that was out there in 
November of 1994 is still out there in August and September of 1995, 
and the Americans want us to move forward with our revolutionary 
agenda.
  Now, they say it is revolutionary. I am going to tell you, I do not 
think it is revolutionary to balance the budget. I do not think it is 
so radical for the Congress to only do what middle class Americans have 
done for over 200 years, and only spend as much money as they take in. 
I do not think it is radical to cut burdensome regulations. I do not 
think it is extreme to give people their money and their power back.
  What is so extreme and revolutionary to adhering to the Constitution? 
If the 10th amendment tells us that the Federal Government can only do 
what the Constitution specifically says it can do, and then the rest of 
the powers are reserved to the people and to the States, that ain't 
revolutionary by 1995 standards. Let us quit lying to the American 
people. That may have been revolutionary back 230 years ago, but let me 
tell you, it is constitutional mainstream thought today. The American 
people have realized it. I am just wondering when everybody else inside 
the beltway is going to realize it.
  I will tell you, my feeling is if that is revolutionary, then count 
me in. We have got to cut taxes. We have got to balance the budget. We 
have got to slash regulations. My residents are telling me get us out 
of the United Nations and get the United Nations off American soil. 
They say cut corporate welfare. They say get the IRS off our backs. 
They say do something, make something happen, make a difference.
  Well, let me tell you something. I came up here and I was fired up. I 
said man, I cannot wait to get up to Washington, DC. I have not felt 
this fired up in over a year since before I came up here and campaigned 
to get into Congress the first time.
  Then the first day back, I have Commerce Secretary Ron Brown come to 
my committee and testify under oath, under oath, that there is not a 
penny of corporate welfare in the Department of Commerce budget and 
that we should not abolish the Department of Commerce.
  Let me tell you something, that is perjury. Plain and simple, that is 
perjury. The Department of Commerce is stocked with corporate welfare. 
Everybody in this body knows it. The corporations that get their 
windfalls from it know it. Bill Clinton knows it, Ron Brown knows it, 
the administration knows it.
  We need to abolish the Department of Commerce. There is a plan coming 
before this house that is passing through committee that it needs to be 
abolished. We need to stop handing out corporate welfare, and we need 
to get Ron Brown, Bill Clinton and the Democrats in this House to 
support our bill. Abolish the Department of Commerce.
  Then we need to move on and abolish the Department of Education 
bureaucracy, set up in 1979 as a political payoff to the teachers 
union. We have gone from spending $14 to $33 billion on education in 
the last 15 years and what has it gotten us? Declining test scores, an 
increase of violence in schools and dropout rates, and an increase in 
all the things we do not want. It is micro-management from Washington, 
DC.
  When are they going to learn inside the Beltway that Washington, DC 
cannot micro-manage every single problem across America? We were sent 
up here to make a difference. We need to stay focused and make a 
difference, because Americans want change.
  Mr. Speaker, that is what we are going to deliver to them.
  

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