[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 76 (Wednesday, May 29, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H5630-H5631]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        SYSTEM IN NEED OF CHANGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Ney] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NEY. Mr. Speaker, today down in Bellaire, OH, a town in my 
district, something was said to me at Rogers Barber Shop that is said 
virtually every single day in my district as I go about talking to 
people. That was from a constituent who said, ``You've got to balance 
the Nation's budget, you've got to do it for the children, we've got to 
do it now.''
  Then that gentleman proceeded to talk about how in fact he had 
opportunity when he was being raised down in the Ohio valley. I stop to 
think about it, and hardly a day goes by that I do not have a young 
couple that comes up to me and tells me that they wonder about their 
future and the future of their children.
  Mr. Speaker, I would have to ask a few questions. Why are so many 
families struggling to keep their heads above water? Why has it become 
so difficult for families in this country to make it? I believe that we 
can summarize it in the 3 words that has been said best by my colleague 
from Georgia, the tax trap. It is the tax trap on working American men 
and women. It is a cycle. It is a vicious cycle. It is never ending on 
people in this country, Mr. Speaker.
  Some people believe that the answer lies in Washington DC. It does 
not. For decades Washington, DC has told the American people that 
everything is okay while it continued to spend the inheritance of 
children and undermine their very future.
  As I went around my district and did a lot of Memorial Day events 
with our fine veterans, I saw a lot of young people, Mr. Speaker. I 
looked at my own children, Bobby and Kayla, wondering what opportunity 
they are going to have, wondering what opportunity other young people 
are going to have in this country. I wonder if they are going to have 
the same kind of opportunity I had when I was raised 41 years ago, when 
a debt was not hung upon my neck to pay, unlike today. A child born 
today in this country is going to owe $187,000 over their working 
lifetime to pay for the past spending habits of this room.
  That is not right, it is not fair, and it is not morally correct to 
do that to young people, Mr. Speaker.
  Every day working families who have been so hard hit in the 18th 
Congressional District of Ohio as they have across this country, 
especially in the industrialized areas that were ravaged by the 
bureaucrats in this Government and by the overspending of Washington, 
every single day those working people have to sit down at their dinner 
table and they have to balance their budget, and Washington did not. 
That is the problem, Mr. Speaker. Past tax-and-spend policies are not 
the way to provide opportunity for working people.
  And people have insecurity these days. I can only think of the 
married couple that wants to buy that piece of the American dream, the 
home. I can only think of the thirtysomethings who are accumulating 
debt that they cannot pay. I can only think about the couples in their 
forties and fifties who are desperately trying to do the right thing 
and save for their future, and I think of America's seniors, America's 
seniors who paid their dues and who deserve the best and deserve for 
Medicare to be their for them.
  Those are the Americans that I can think of. Those are the real 
people. Not inside the Beltway in Washington, Mr. Speaker, but the real 
people that every single day have to go out and earn a living and have 
to provide opportunity for their families.
  It is not right what has been done in Washington. Enough is enough. 
It is time to draw the line in the sand. It is time to give people back 
their ability to control their destiny.
  Mr. Speaker, corporate America also needs to produce a healthy 
environment and healthy bottom line for working Americans. Corporate 
America needs to be involved in job training,

[[Page H5631]]

employee education, and involved in the community. That does not mean 
that we need to rip down the corporations, but we need to be able to 
create a job and people need to be able to have a job. Corporate 
America has got to help with that take-home power. Corporate America 
has got to be a player in this system, Mr. Speaker. It has got to be 
sensitive to the working people, as Congress needs to be sensitive to 
the working people of this country.
  We also need legal reform. The country has come into a sense of 
lawsuit madness and that in itself also has to end.

                                  2030

  With all due respect, the trial lawyers are totally out of control in 
this country. We need to make fundamental changes in Washington, DC, to 
have a better, brighter, cleaner, safer future for our children.
  It is about the wallet, Mr. Speaker, the money that the working 
people of this country put into the wallet and the money this 
Government takes out. And under our plan, and we want to join together 
with the other side of the aisle, working Americans are going to have 
more of their own hard earned money to spend for their futures.

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