[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 101 (Wednesday, July 10, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H7246-H7247]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     REVISITING THE 104TH CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Kingston] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, in 1994 Republicans were elected to the 
House in great numbers, 73 new Republican freshmen. They came to 
Washington with lots of reforms in their mind. But since then they have 
been called extremist, mean-spirited, callous, fanatical and so forth 
and that has become their label. Yet when we see what their agenda 
really was, this thing called the Contract With America, what was it 
designed to do? It was designed to reduce the size of government, to 
cut wasteful spending, to lower taxes, to balance the budget, to reform 
welfare, and to increase personal freedom.
  The folks I talk to back home in the grocery store checkout line, 
they do not consider these things extremist ideas. They think that they 
are commonsense ideas and reforms that we need to do.
  Let us look at this in a little more detail. Do you think it is 
extreme to try to balance the budget the way you and I have to in our 
household at the end of each month? Do you think it is a good idea to 
do something about the $20 billion that we spend each month just in 
interest on the national debt? Do you think we should pass this legacy 
on to our children? Or do you think we should do something about it? 
And do you think, Mr. Speaker, that it is extreme to try to balance 
this budget in a 7-year period of time, so that you do not pull the rug 
out from under anybody? Do you think that lowering the rate of spending 
is extreme, so that one day the revenues that come in, tax dollars, and 
our spending will be equal? I do not believe that is extreme, Mr. 
Speaker.
  What did the Democrats do when they controlled this House? They say 
what we are trying to do is extreme. They increased domestic spending 
$300 billion. Years and years of overspending, on tilting the scale 
toward big bureaucracy, has left us with 163 different Federal job 
training programs, 26 different Federal food and nutrition programs, 
and 180 education programs. A lot of duplications in that, Mr. Speaker. 
I think we can do something about it.
  Let us talk about taxes. Under the Democrat rule, we had a tax 
increase of $245 billion, a gas tax increase of 4.3 cents a gallon, a 
tax on Social Security, and a tax on small businesses and 
partners. What do the Republicans want to do, these so-called freshman 
extremists? They want to cut taxes. One of them is a $500 per child tax 
credit. Do you think that your friends and neighbors and your people 
that you see

[[Page H7247]]

in car pool lines deserve a $500 per child tax credit? Do you think 
that they could use that to buy a few more pairs of tennis shoes, T-
shirts and back packs for their children? Do you think the workers of 
America deserve that? Do you think that they have paid enough and maybe 
something like that would help them?

  Let us talk about some of these other taxes that we are accused of 
giving a tax cut for the wealthy. Do you think that our senior citizens 
should get the tax relief on their Social Security when the President 
increased taxes on Social Security in 1993? Do you think it would be 
fair to take that tax off of our seniors? Do you think that it would be 
fair to let seniors work longer without being penalized on their Social 
Security? I do not think that is extremist.
  What about the capital gains tax? If we pass a capital gains tax, 
will Ted Turner benefit from it? He will. I do not have a problem with 
that, Mr. Speaker, because who else will is all the widows in my area, 
which is a growth area, who have bought their house 30 years ago, it is 
now paid for, but the house that they bought for $50,000 in the 1960s 
is now worth $300,000 and they could benefit from a capital gains tax 
cut.
  Welfare. Let us talk about welfare. We have been accused of extremism 
in welfare and all kinds of quotes that almost are hard to recognize. 
The President, as you know, promised to end welfare. He did not offer a 
welfare reform bill. When we tried to offer one, we were accused, here 
is one, of Representative Levin, ``You use a meat ax against the 
handicapped children and their parents.''
  President Clinton said in February 1995, ``What they want to do is 
declare war on the children in America.''
  Here is another quote from a Member of the House of Representatives 
on the House floor said, ``These people,'' they are talking about these 
Republican freshmen, ``are practicing genocide with a smile. They are 
worse than Hitler.''
  Here is another one. These are all from House Members. ``There is a 
similarity between NEWT and Hitler. Hitler started out getting rid of 
the poor and those he said were a drag on society and NEWT is starting 
out the same way.''
  These words have been said on the floor of the House by Democrats.

                              {time}  2215

  Now I ask, does that sound a little extreme in terms of rhetoric? Is 
that based on reality? What is the Republican welfare bill?

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