[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 171 (Wednesday, November 1, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H11676-H11677]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2045

  It is an absolute necessity. I have to tell you something, I have 
concerns about this budget. It is not a perfect budget, but let me tell 
you something, it does something that we have not done in Washington, 
DC, in a generation. It balances the budget. That is absolutely 
essential.
  For those who think that it goes too far, I have to tell you this. 
How can we go beyond 7 years? How can we trust Congresses 10 or 20 
years down the road to continue to have the guts to do what all 
Americans know we have to do today? As so many people testified before 
the Committee on the Budget, from talking to the gentleman from Arizona 
[Mr. Shadegg] and others on the Committee on the Budget, and the 
gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Shays], they have had an avalanche of 
witnesses who have said even though every American does not focus in on 
deficit issues, they will understand a few years down the road why this 
is so important, because if we follow through on the Republican plan to 
balance the budget in 7 years, Americans will see unprecedented growth, 
more growth than they have seen economically since World War II, since 
the ending of World War II.
  What does that mean? That means interest rates on your car loan go 
down, that means interest rates on your house loan go down. It means 
that middle-class Americans get the break that they deserve, get the 
break that they have not had for the past 40 years, and we bring sanity 
back to the process.
  Mr. SHADEGG. If the gentleman will continue to yield, Mr. Speaker, I 
just want to ask you quickly if you happened to hear the four Wall 
Street economists who came before the policy committee today and who 
testified that we had already, by what steps we have taken, brought 
interest rates in America down by 2 percent since we took office in 
January. They compared that 2 percent reduction in interest rates here 
in America with other comparable economies, where interest rates have 
come down 1 percent, and they said, ``The policies you have adopted 
have already had the effect of reducing the interest rate here in 
America by 1 extra percentage point below what it had been before you 
got here.'' That is a real savings in car loans and home mortgage loans 
across the board.
  Now if we go the next step we will see a real dramatic impact, and 
they predicted 2 more percentage points' drop in the interest rates.
  Mr. SCARBOROUGH. Reclaiming my time, it was a very interesting 
hearing today. I know everybody that was there had to feel good about 
what they were saying, because we were sending the signal across the 
world that we were finally going to get America's House in order. 
Interest rates have dropped. That has meant more money for middle-class 
Americans all across America.
  They said, and this is the final point I will make before yielding 
back my time, they said, ``The danger lies in us not having the guts to 
finish what we 

[[Page H 11677]]

start. The danger does not lie in having a showdown with the President, 
if that is required, and possibly having government shut down for 12 
hours or 24 hours.'' They said, ``The real danger in the market lies in 
us continuing to throw away money like we have thrown away for the past 
40 years.''
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. SCARBOROUGH. I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Dornan].
  Mr. DORNAN. I just wanted to make an observation while the 
distinguished gentleman from New York, Bill Paxon, is in the Chamber, 
what a great piece of work he helped to form on November 8 of last 
year, a year ago this coming week.
  I know a fully matured lion, like the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. 
Shays] will not mind an aging lion who came here out of the 
bicentennial election of 1976, to notice that we have Pennsylvania, we 
have Arizona, we have Iowa, a very important State, at least until 
Lincoln's Birthday, February 12, we have Minnesota, we have Georgia, we 
have the beautiful panhandle of Florida, the most beautiful beaches in 
America. And I am telling you, if this freshman class had not come 
along, there were some of us who would have turned in our spurs by now 
and said that there were other things to do, like enjoy our 
grandchildren.
  Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. I yield to the gentleman from Connecticut.
  Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I have to say that one of the unsung heroes 
in this Congress is the gentleman from New York [Mr. Paxon], because he 
has made all the difference in our having a Republican majority and the 
opportunity to save this country and to turn it from the direction it 
has headed. I would applaud, if I was allowed to.
  Mr. DORNAN. He has made you a chairman, he has made me a chairman, 
but here is the point, if I may mention the House of Lords, the other 
body.
  I just did a radio show in San Diego and a questioner of no known 
ideology said, ``What are you people accomplishing? Suppose you have a 
great freshman class. So what? It is all dying in the Senate, is it 
not? You are not going to get anything done.'' I think what we have to 
keep reminding our worthy colleague, including some old long-in-the-
tooth lions over there, is that they enjoyed chairmanships and the 
chance to creatively write American history for 6 years, thanks to 
Ronald Reagan and the great election victory in 1980.
  But in this Chamber, the people's House, the money House, the 
appropriations bill House, the first among equals by the writers of our 
Constitution, the Framers said that we were to be first among equals 
over the Senate, over the Supreme Court, and over the White House, and 
we have not had a chairmanship in this place for 40 years in the 
political desert.
  So not only did all of you give me a chance over the last 10 months 
to sit on a Committee on Armed Services, a subcommittee chairmanship, 
and one on the Permanent Select on Intelligence, but you gave back to 
the U.S. Senate all of those chairmanships that they are enjoying, and 
they had better remember the gift that you have given them for some 
fulfillment in life, this opportunity to craft American history, and 
that you are going to keep the promises you made, and it is promises 
that the whole Republican Party is going to be held accountable for on 
November 5, in 1 year and 4 days from All Saints Day, today.
  Mr. SCARBOROUGH. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from California [Mr. 
Dornan] obviously talked from a Republican standpoint, but what is 
exciting to me when I go home is that it is not a Republican issue, it 
is an issue that all Americans have united on, and it is something that 
I am extremely proud of. I am in a district that is 60 percent 
Democrat, and they love what we are doing up here.

  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from 
Minnesota.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman talked about promises made, 
promises kept, and a Governor from Minnesota once observed that 
politics is a promising profession. In the last several years we have 
heard a lot of campaign promises.
  I want to remind the gentleman of some which were made by a gentleman 
who was elected to the Presidency several years ago. He was elected 
promising to downsize the Federal Government, to end welfare as we know 
it, to reform welfare, to save the Medicare system, and to give a tax 
break to the middle class while balancing the budget within 5 years.
  Those are the same kind of promises that we made, and the difference 
is that we kept our promises; he broke his. What makes me so angry is 
that now he is trying to keep us from keeping our promises to the 
American people. We are not going to stand for it, and neither are the 
American people.
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. I thank my colleagues.

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