[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 69 (Thursday, May 22, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H3174]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           TIME TO LOOK AHEAD

  (Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, despite some obvious unhappiness on the 
far left, the balanced budget agreement passed yesterday on a vote, a 
bipartisan vote, of 333 to 99, an overwhelming number of Democrats and 
Republicans passed this. It is a budget that balances by 2002. It 
provides permanent tax relief for the middle class, $500 per child tax 
credit. Medicare is safe from bankruptcy and solvent completely until 
the year 2007.
  We have to look ahead. We, together, on a bipartisan basis need to 
work for a drug-free America. Drugs are a poison to society, they are 
involved with crime, violence, spousal and child abuse. We have to 
address drugs on a bipartisan basis.
  We have to look forward to education, but the focus on the classroom 
and learning, and not on the Washington bureaucracy. We also have to 
look at out-of-wedlock pregnancy. For 15 years the number of out-of-
wedlock births has almost tripled. Over 70 percent of all juveniles in 
State reform institutions were raised in fatherless homes.
  These are the challenges that lie ahead. We can work best on a 
bipartisan basis to work toward solutions.

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