[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 183 (Friday, November 17, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H13295]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   REPUBLICANS MEET BUDGET CHALLENGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. Lewis] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LEWIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, today, November 17, this House 
passed a balanced budget, the 1995 Balanced Budget Act. Twenty-six 
years it has taken to reach this day. Mr. Speaker, 26 years of 
spending, and spending, and taxing, and spending. Today we met the 
challenge, we stood up for the American people, and we have decided 
that we are going to bring the fiscal policies of this country into 
order.
  Mr. Speaker, 40 years, though, this House has been controlled by one 
party, 40 years. What do we hear when we now are trying to do what the 
American people sent us here to do, and that is to balance the budget? 
We hear the status quo being preached from the other side; that we are 
going to ruin this country; that we are going to hurt our senior 
citizens; that we are going to hurt children; that we are going to do 
harm to this great country.
  Mr. Speaker, why is it after 40 years, why is it after 30 years of 
the war on poverty and the design for the Great Society that was 
initiated in 1965, why is it that we have the highest crime rate in the 
world? Why is it that illiteracy is growing and SAT scores are going 
down? Teenage pregnancy, illegitimacy is growing at an alarming rate. 
Drugs are out of control. Poverty is going up. Medicare is going 
bankrupt. Taxes for the average family are 40 percent.
  Mr. Speaker, 38 percent of our gross domestic product is consumed by 
the public sector. We are $5 trillion in debt, and we hear from our 
colleagues across the aisle that we are going to ruin this country.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit tonight that the Great Society that was started 
in 1965 is a failure. The Great Society that was started in 1965, 
promised to win the war on poverty. As I said a minute ago, there are 
more in poverty today than when that started. The Great Society has 
taken us down the primrose lane to a society that is in trouble today. 
$5 trillion. $5 trillion was spent to win the war on poverty. The 
tragedy today is that we lost that war, and we are $5 trillion in debt.
  Today, I think we have started down the right road to a new future, 
to a truly new Great Society, a society that is going to depend on 
personal responsibility, on community responsibility, on State 
responsibility. We have started down a road where we are going to lower 
the taxes on middle-income families. We are going to give back to 
mothers and fathers and children their own money that they can spend it 
the way that they see fit. We are going to save Medicare for our senior 
citizens. We are going to turn the welfare problem around. We are going 
to reform it.
  Mr. Speaker, that is what I was sent here to do, and the reason that 
I wanted to come here, to try to solve these problems. I have a 13-
year-old daughter. I have a 24-year-old son, and they have no future 
unless we do something. I think we started to do it today.
  Mr. Speaker, if I look down through the years, and if we do not solve 
these problems, my daughter, sometime midway through her work career 
and through her life, she will be seeing a $4 trillion deficit for one 
year of spending for this government in the year 2030. We cannot go 
down that road. I think we are doing the right thing as we started down 
the right road today.

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