[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 199 (Thursday, December 14, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H14908]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  40 YEARS OF TAX AND SPEND IS EXTREME

  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, we have been called many names, 
the majority has. We have been called revolutionaries, just a few 
minutes ago even Bolsheviks maybe, but the main term has been extreme, 
extreme and mean-spirited, the ``E'' word.
  Mr. Clinton has used it, the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Gephardt] 
has used it, the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Bonior] has used it. It 
seems like there is a concerted effort to use the ``extreme'' word to 
describe the mew majority.
  Mr. Speaker, the new majority was elected by a majority of the people 
in this country. I do not consider them extreme; I think they saw 
something wrong with 40 years of one-party rule in this House. I think 
they saw something extreme about the spending over 40 years, and 
something extreme about the rising taxation that this one-party rule 
for 40 years had placed upon the American people.
  What is extreme? What is extreme and mean-spirited about wanting a 
reasonable balanced budget within 7 years? What is extreme about 
wanting to reform welfare and end welfare as we know it? What is 
extreme about a plan to save Medicare from bankruptcy? What is extreme 
about wanting to reform Medicaid and allow the Governors, just like 
Governor Bill Clinton wanted, to see a change in Medicaid to save it 
and to make it more easily administered through the States. What is 
extreme about wanting to give tax cuts to families when the average 
family today is paying 40 percent of their income, and some approaching 
50 percent, in local, State and Federal taxes? What is extreme about 
that?
  Mr. Speaker, what is extreme about spending $2.5 trillion over the 
next 7 years, more than what we are spending now? How much more does 
the President want to spend?
  What is extreme is a President that has said over and over again he 
wants a balanced budget, but he never can bring himself to do it. What 
is extreme is 40 years of tax-and-spend that has brought this Nation 
almost to bankruptcy with a $5 trillion debt. What is extreme is 
putting our children's future in jeopardy.
  I have a 13-year-old daughter that, if we continue spending and 
spending and spending without ever balancing the budget, in the year 
2012 every tax dollar will be consumed by entitlements and interest on 
the debt. What kind of future will she have? What kind of future will 
she have when she approaches my age in the year 2030? The deficit for 1 
year will be over $4 trillion, just for 1 year.

                              {time}  1500

  We are talking about the future of this Nation. What is extreme about 
wanting to save the economic vialibity of this Nation?
  It seems that our liberal friends, led by Mr. Clinton, are more 
concerned about next year than the years after.
  Extreme, mean-spirited. I have parents that are both 78 years old. I 
want to preserve the future of Medicare for them. I am a mainstream 
American. I came from mainstream America. I was elected by mainstream 
Americans that saw something critically wrong coming out of this 
Federal Government.
  There are a lot of 78-year-olds just like my parents back in the 
Second District of Kentucky that want to have Medicare in their future. 
But because of an extreme point of view from the other side they are 
willing to see it go bankrupt before they are willing to save it for 
the future.

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