[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 172 (Thursday, November 2, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S16568]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      RESTORING THE BONDS OF TRUST

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, it is a real pleasure to be able to join my 
fellow freshmen and sophomores with a message that has been consistent. 
It is a message asking for the courage of the American people to come 
forward to accomplish the agenda that has been set out in a very clear 
fashion.
  Politics, like medicine, must be based on trust. Without trust, 
people lose more than their faith in Government. They lose all hope, 
hope that life in the future will be better than in the past.
  That is why in the 1994 campaign, Republicans pledged not just to 
change politics but to restore the bonds of trust between the people 
and their elected representatives, to make us all proud once again of 
the way free people govern themselves.
  The ideal of freedom and opportunity, which is the spiritual strength 
of our Nation, is what motivated our Founding Fathers. That ideal is 
what motivates us today.
  As the poet Archie MacLeish once remarked in a debate about national 
purpose, ``There are those who reply that the liberation of humanity, 
the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a dream. They are right. It 
is. It is the American dream.''
  Mr. President, we can no longer sacrifice the future, the future of 
our children, by clinging to the past. We must work to restore the 
American dream for our children and for our grandchildren, but that 
means keeping our promises.
  Keeping our promise to balance the budget means a better life for all 
Americans. As interest rates fall and productivity rises, all Americans 
will enjoy a higher standard of living.
  Keeping our promise to save and strengthen Medicare means that for 
the first time seniors will have a voice but also a choice, and the 
Medicare system will be preserved for that next generation.
  Keeping our promise to cut taxes means that all Americans who have 
watched their tax burden grow from as little as 2 to 5 percent in 1950 
to almost 50 percent today will finally get to keep more of what they 
earn.
  Keeping our promise to end welfare as a way of life means that the 
cycle of poverty that has trapped a generation of families in welfare 
will at last be broken and parents will be able to regain their pride 
and their dignity through work and personal responsibility.
  It is a time to change. It is a time to call upon the courage of 
legislators, of representatives, and of the American people to 
recognize and carry out this change.
  The decisions we make today will determine our future. Let us go 
forward with hope, confident that the future we leave to our children 
and to their children will be brighter than our past.
  That is the legacy of our parents and that their parents left to 
them. It is the legacy all Americans inherited from our Founding 
Fathers, the legacy of the American dream. Let us not be the first 
generation who fails to pass it on.
  Mr. President, I thank the Chair, and I yield floor.
  Mr. THOMAS addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
  Mr. THOMAS. I yield myself such time as I usefully use.
  Mr. President, I congratulate my friend from Tennessee, who has 
certainly been a leader in the Medicare-Medicaid propositions that have 
come forward. He has been a leader partially because of his experience 
as a physician, but also having a very strong commitment to move 
forward in the changes that need to be made in order to strengthen and 
preserve these programs so that they will be useful. So I congratulate 
my friend.

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