[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 114 (Wednesday, September 3, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H6765-H6772]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    LISTENING TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 7, 1997, the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Hulshof] is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. HULSHOF. Mr. Speaker, continuing the tradition that we have tried 
to begin as newly elected Republican Members focusing on positive 
success stories across the district, as you know just as our Nation's 
children are returning to schools all across this great land, we 
lawmakers are returning here to Washington and I think probably sharing 
some of the mixed emotions that our schoolchildren have as far as 
returning here to this establishment.
  What we do here, of course, is very important with the bills and the 
debates and our struggles here. But I think what we do pales in 
comparison to the real life struggles that our constituents, the 
American people, are facing each and every day.
  We talk about this 4-week period of time here in August, or just as 
August past, as a recess or a vacation. And I know many of the newly 
elected Members did not consider it as a vacation, as a recess. It was 
a very good time to get back home to really probe the minds and listen. 
And I think if anything that we have been able to accomplish that has 
been the most fruitful is that we stop shouting long enough in this 
body to listen to what the American people have to say.
  And when we began to listen to those men and women that have been 
struggling to keep a roof overhead and keep food on the table, what we 
heard them tell us is that they were working longer and harder and yet 
had less to show for it at the end of the month and wondering where 
their tax monies had gone.

                              {time}  1915

  Basically what I was hearing, in a series of town hall meetings, was 
that the people back home in Missouri's Ninth Congressional District 
wanted us to change our ways here in Washington so that they would not 
have to change their ways back home.
  I know certainly that there has been a wide difference of opinion on 
the budget agreement that we put together. Certainly future political 
candidates, I was flipping around the channels and watching C-SPAN and 
some of the speeches where future politicians or those seeking higher 
office have talked about what we did in a negative way. Yet I did not 
sense that at all. A series of town meetings in the Ninth Congressional 
District of Missouri were overwhelmingly positive.
  The folks that came out recognized that we were on the path to a 
smaller, smarter government. They were appreciative of the fact that 
the centerpiece of our budget agreement, the tax relief package, was a 
child credit that will benefit the parents of 41 million children 
across this country, and the fact that nearly 2 million households will 
not have a Federal income tax liability just because of this $500 child 
credit.
  They were appreciative of the child health initiative that we have 
commenced, that we put together in this budget plan to help the 
Nation's most vulnerable that are uninsured. And I tried to explain and 
made clear that this was not a new Federal entitlement that we had 
imposed but a way to reach out with local innovative solutions to this 
national problem of uninsured children.
  They were certainly appreciative, as education is very much on the 
minds of the folks in the Ninth Congressional District, that we have 
education tuition credits that we are putting in place so that children 
that dream of college can actually get there, and those that have been 
laboring under the weight of a student loan might have a little bit of 
his or her burden eased by allowing the deduction of interest on that 
student loan.
  Certainly we recognize that a strong economy is vital because as we 
help educate and invest in our children, the

[[Page H6766]]

future of this country, we have to make sure that there are jobs 
available. And clearly people recognize that we do not create jobs here 
in Washington; it is the American people, it is the business people, it 
is small business across this country that creates the jobs. And so 
clearly we want to make sure that every investor, every inventor, every 
small business person, every farmer has some relief from this very 
burdensome tax on savings and investment that we have come to call 
capital gains, and they were very appreciative that we have at least 
taken a step in the right direction regarding a reduction on that 
burdensome tax.
  Many of the women that came to town hall meetings were astounded to 
learn that women in this country are starting businesses at twice the 
rate of men in this country. But oftentimes women have that very 
difficult choice, do I stay home with family or do I rejoin the work 
force? So we have reached out to them and all small business people 
that want to work from their homes by restoring the flexibility through 
the home office deduction; and the American people, at least those in 
the Ninth Congressional District, see that and applaud that as a step 
in the right direction.
  Finally, as we have talked about many times in this Chamber, I 
personally believe it is immoral that the Federal Government can take 
up to 55 percent of a family farm or family business at death. Death 
should not be a taxable event. Certainly we will be having future 
discussions about death tax relief, but we have made some positive 
strides by raising the exemption so that family farms and family 
businesses and those that labor can pass the fruits of their labors on 
to future generations.
  I know one of the polls that somebody showed me as we were leaving 
town 4 weeks ago indicated that Congress' approval rating was at a high 
level, at least the highest level since the early 1970's, and sadly our 
approval rating in this body was above our disapproval for the first 
time in several decades. And of course that is a sad event, but we need 
to continue to focus on our agenda that we will be bringing to the 
floor in the weeks and months ahead before we take our final recess for 
the end of the year.
  We have got a lot of work yet to do. But I think we need to focus a 
little bit on some of the success stories and some of the things that 
we have listened to the people across this country in our respective 
districts.
  I see I have various colleagues that are here to join me. I think 
first I would yield to the gentleman from South Dakota [Mr. Thune]. It 
is interesting that each of us has our own respective districts and I 
know our friend and colleague, the gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Moran], I 
think was one of the most ambitious and he embarked on a 60-plus county 
tour and made sure that he blanketed his district.
  But certainly we do not have quite the expanse of territory to cover 
as the gentleman from Montana [Mr. Hill], who is not with us, or the 
gentleman from South Dakota who has the entire State.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from South Dakota [Mr. Thune].
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Missouri and would 
say that over the course of the August break, I had the opportunity to 
travel over much of the 77,000 square miles that compose our State of 
South Dakota. As I traveled the highways and byways and places like 
Sturgis and Spearfish and Custer and Rapid City and Hill City and 
Mitchell and Yankton and Watertown and Pierre and Gettysburg and Clark 
and Aberdeen and Sioux Falls, my home town of Murdo, made it there, 
places like Wall and winding up at the State Fair in Huron, we had an 
opportunity, I think, to really get in touch with the real world and 
remember what we are all about here.
  And it was great, because I had my wife and two little girls with me. 
They had an opportunity to return and enjoy the freedoms that you have 
on the windswept prairies of South Dakota.
  In fact, my 7-year-old, who is sort of a tomboy, enjoys doing things 
outside, one afternoon when we were at the grandparents in Gettysburg, 
she said something to the effect, as her sister asked her if she could 
paint her toenails, she said, no, I have got frogs and snakes to catch 
outside. And she came back with a snake hanging on her hand, much to 
her grandmother's chagrin. I think she about had a conniption when that 
happened.
  Those are the types of things that people in our part of the country 
are able to enjoy. It is a wonderful place to be from, and it was great 
to be able to travel.
  One of the things that we did while we were out there is, we held a 
series of meetings on transportation issues. Those issues are critical 
in our State because we rely so heavily on our farm-to-market 
transportation system, because we are predominantly an agricultural 
State, but also we rely quite heavily upon tourism as an industry. So 
roads and bridges and transportation are critical in our States.
  I had the opportunity to listen to people who were interested in 
transportation policy issues, people like mayors and county 
commissioners and State officials and economic development experts and 
Chamber people and those who are in the business of building roads and 
bridges in the construction business. One of the recurring themes was, 
when you rewrite this Federal highway bill out there in Washington, 
please do it in a way that maximizes our flexibility and that allows us 
and enables us to make the decisions about what the highest needs are 
at the local level; and try and get away from this micromanaging of 
Federal highway programs and policies and priorities from Washington, 
DC.
  Through those discussions, I was really reminded, too, of why we do 
what we do because really this is about people and about giving them 
more control of their lives. And I was reminded, as well, of the 
difference between the way that the Washington glitterati views things 
and the way that people back in the real world view things. And there 
are a couple of distinctions I would like to draw to my colleagues' 
attention here this evening because I think it was a great reminder; 
any of us, when we go home, often have these things brought to our 
attention.
  But one of the things that we have been talking about a lot is for 
the first time in over 30 years we will have balanced the budget in 
this country, and that was a priority for all of us here. All of us who 
are here in the Chamber this evening talked a lot about that throughout 
the course of our campaign, about lowering the tax burden on hard-
working families, men and women in this country.
  In my State those are ranchers, small business people; those are 
people who are trying to make an honest living and just really hoping 
that Government will sort of stay out of their way. And one of the 
things I saw was a tax foundation study which enumerated and broke down 
the tax savings and benefits that were in this particular package for 
the State of South Dakota. It was about $416 million in tax relief to 
our State, some 247 million coming from the family tax credit, but also 
estate tax relief for the 34,000 farmers and ranchers in South Dakota.
  The 66 percent of the people in South Dakota who own their own homes 
will have the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of capital gains tax 
relief should they decide to sell that home. Income averaging can for 
farmers. There was an opportunity in there, as well, when it comes to 
the whole area of deferring income and allowing farmers and ranchers, 
people who have very volatile and erratic incomes to spread that over a 
period of years.
  There were so many things that were positive in this. The one thing I 
will say though, and I heard this over and over, is that we made a step 
in the right direction; that we are lowering the tax burden in this 
country, but we did nothing to simplify what is already an inordinately 
complicated Tax Code.
  I would hope that as we progress down the road in the next year or 
so, we can continue to draw attention to the complexity of the Tax Code 
in this country and how difficult it is for people to comply. We have 
added to what already are 471 different forms, and we spend some 5 
billion man-hours a year complying with the Tax Code in America.
  I was talking with an accountant in Pierre, and he was thanking his 
lucky stars for what we had done because it was job security for him. 
But at the same time, it has made it that much more complex and 
complicated and

[[Page H6767]]

really overwhelming, I think, to a lot of people in this country who 
try and fill out tax returns.
  So I was reminded again of the need not only to simplify, to make 
things less complicated, but to take the power and control out of 
Washington, out of the hands of the Federal Government, out of 
bureaucrats, and to give it back to families and main streets and State 
and local governments and put that decision-making back in the living 
room. I think that is really what this whole thing is about. It is what 
this movement is about.
  As we continue down the road, as we have started with the balanced 
budget and lower taxes, the next step along the way is to bring 
simplification, to lessen the regulatory burden, to continue to lower 
taxes and to bring some accountability to Government so that the people 
in this country know that they are getting a good bang for the taxpayer 
dollar. I think all that involves more flexibility.
  We have a notion here in Washington I think that more is better, and 
frankly I think that the people of this country are much better off, my 
children are eminently better off in a form of government where we do 
not gauge success or measure success by how much we take tax dollars 
from hard-working families, run it through the Washington bureaucracy 
and then redistribute it in the form of grants.
  We are a lot better off when we allow people to keep the money, the 
hard-earned dollars, and make the decisions about where best to use 
those. That is, I would hope, how we would measure success in the work 
that we are about here.
  We have embarked on an important journey. It is the first step in 
what I hope will be a long process of restoring and taking control and 
power and decision-making and authority out of Washington and putting 
it back in the hands of families and individuals. That crosses so many 
different areas. You look at the world of education, allowing parents 
to have more decision-making authority, more choice on where they send 
their kids.
  And so these are things that I heard as I traveled across the State, 
and as I said, it concluded what was an about a week at the State Fair, 
which is an opportunity to get a broad cross-section of people in South 
Dakota, to hear what is on their minds. And, frankly, I think that they 
are for the most part very upbeat, very optimistic about where we are 
headed, and I think that is a great tribute to what we have 
accomplished as a Republican Congress, because the things that we have 
accomplished and where we are today, in my view, are a testimony to and 
a tribute to the ability of the Republican Congress to move the agenda 
in that direction.
  And I think probably that my colleagues here, the gentleman from 
Missouri, heard the same thing. I would hope that we would continue to 
be the shining city on the hill that attracts people from all over the 
world because they have hope and opportunity and freedom to explore the 
American dream here, to pursue happiness in their particular way and 
that is really what we are about. This was a great reminder as I 
traveled across my State of South Dakota about why we are here, what we 
do, why we do it; and again it was a great privilege and honor to get a 
feel for the people that we represent.
  I would like to hear as well from some of my other friends who are on 
the floor here this evening.
  Mr. HULSHOF. Mr. Speaker, I think the word that the gentleman used, 
``optimism,'' I think that is probably what I heard most often from the 
folks that I had a chance to visit with. All the polls and surveys that 
these consultants and political pundits seem to find so important, I 
think truly when you get out of this place and you go back home and you 
listen to people in town hall meetings, you just open it up for 
discussion and you say, what is on your minds, I think some of the 
themes that you have mentioned are exactly what are the prevailing 
thoughts of most Americans, they do want less of Washington.

                              {time}  1930

  I certainly trust the folks on Ducelle Avenue in Columbia, MO, my 
hometown. I trust them to make the decisions with their tax money a lot 
better than I trust the 435 of us that assemble here to decide how that 
money should be spent. They clearly, the folks back home, are 
appreciative of the fact that we were letting them keep money, their 
own money. This is not some sort of a rebate, that we are giving them 
back their money. It is allowing them to keep the money they have 
earned. I heard some of the same themes that the gentleman mentioned.
  I know the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Pease] also was quite busy. In 
fact, his staff, as I understand it, had him crisscrossing the 
district. He saw himself coming and going, as I understand.
  Mr. PEASE. I did, indeed. I was fortunate to spend about two-thirds 
of my time during the month of August doing the same thing that my 
colleagues from South Dakota, from Colorado, from New Jersey, from 
Missouri did; that is, spending time with the good folks in western 
Indiana, which comprises my district. And my experience was very 
similar to those that have been related here this evening. People from 
western Indiana I think are representative of all that is best in our 
country. They are folks that care about their kids, they care about 
their communities, they care about their country, and in most cases 
they really do not ask a lot of us, basically for us to leave them 
alone. They can make decisions for themselves, they will take care of 
their neighbors, they will reach out the helping hand to those who need 
it.
  And in town meeting after town meeting, we heard the same thing, 
about an appreciation for the fact that their representatives in 
Congress, though they often differ, stood for the principles that they 
believed in, and, more than that, were willing to listen to those of 
differing viewpoints, to try and work together for the good of the 
country, to posture less and to build policy more, and generally gave 
positive marks, although they understand that what we did was really a 
down payment on the future, that there is still much work to be done, 
but that they supported the direction where we were going.
  The thing that struck me more than anything in the time that I spent 
in my district and out of it, which I want to talk about in a minute, 
was the continuing generosity of the American people. Most of the folks 
in my district are working hard to support their families. Many of them 
have to have both spouses working in order to meet the needs of their 
children, or in some cases they are taking care of their parents, 
helping their neighbors, but in case after case, we saw people who 
still after all that gave of their time as volunteers, in their 
libraries, in their hospitals, in their schools, in community and youth 
organizations. Despite all the demands on them at work and at home, 
they still found time to be volunteers on behalf of others.
  Which brings me to my second point, and that is, I spent the 
remaining third of the month of August as a volunteer myself in a 
couple of places: First, not far from here, near Fredericksburg, VA, 
where I was a volunteer, along with 5,000 other volunteers, at the 
national jamboree of the Boy Scouts of America, an event that is held 
every 4 years. We had 30,000 young people from all across this country 
who were able to come and spend about a week together because we had 
5,000 men and women who gave of their vacations, who left time away 
from their families, who paid their own way to come and work, and 
sometimes in 90 and 100 degree temperature, most of them living in 
tents, so that young people could have a good experience. The barracks 
where I stayed with other adult volunteers had a cross-section of 
America. We had Protestants and Catholics and Jews, Buddhists, people 
of all creeds and colors, who care about young people and who care 
about the principles that scouting tries to teach, which are character 
development and citizenship training and personal fitness, and they 
gave of their time, many of them, for 2 and 3 weeks, and came and 
labored. We had an admiral, we had factory workers, we had school 
teachers, a cross-section of America who gave up their time on behalf 
of young people, and they did it cheerfully, an example, I think, of 
all that is best in our country's traditions, of trying to instill 
moral values in our young people and not waiting and in fact in some 
cases resisting the Government doing it but

[[Page H6768]]

taking it as their own responsibility to care for young people in their 
neighborhoods, in their communities and across the country.
  Part of the time I also spent at the Boy Scouts' facility in 
northeast New Mexico, near Cimmaron, where the gentleman from New 
Mexico [Mr. Redmond], who was elected in a special election earlier 
this year, met me at a town hall meeting in Colfax County, northeast 
New Mexico, and we talked to the folks there about the same sorts of 
thing we have been talking about here, and where I was also able to 
spend a little volunteer time at Philmont Scout Ranch, which is 138,000 
acres in the mountains of northeast New Mexico where I saw another 
example of volunteerism, where young people, teenagers, teenage boys 
from all over the country paid their own way to come to the mountains 
of northeast New Mexico and volunteer to work, in most cases hard work, 
breaking rocks and building trails in the mountains of northeast New 
Mexico, where they could learn ways that we can protect the environment 
for the future, learn the good lessons of personal responsibility, both 
for each other and for the environment, and giving of their time and 
their energy as volunteers for other young people's futures who will 
benefit from that scouting facility in northeast New Mexico. Eighteen 
thousand young people over the course of a summer come to Philmont 
Scout Ranch. They come at their own expense and they come with 
volunteers, men and women from across the country who pay their own 
way, give up their vacations to spend time with young people.
  I am reminded, too, that the Boy Scouts, along with many other 
organizations across the country were participants in the President's 
Summit for Volunteerism that was held at Philadelphia earlier this 
year. They are representative of that spirit in this country where 
people take responsibility for young people. They do not wait for the 
Government to take responsibility. In fact, in many cases their agenda 
is to make sure that young people have the positive example of role 
models that are concerned about their moral development, their 
spiritual development, their physical development, and they take that 
responsibility themselves. The Boy Scouts as a national organization 
have committed between 1997 and 2000, 200 million hours of community 
service in neighborhoods across this country where young people and 
their adult volunteers will work on behalf of their neighbors. All of 
that sort of experience and the folks that I saw in libraries and 
hospitals and schools across my district remind me again of that 
wonderful American tradition of personal responsibility, being 
accountable for yourself and helping your neighbors, and even though it 
was tiring to spend that time as a personal volunteer and to spend 
those hours, as we all did, traveling around our districts, it was 
refreshing and reinforcing and reminded me why it is important for us 
to be here and represent those values and do the best we can to support 
those folks back home.

  Mr. HULSHOF. I appreciate the gentleman's report and certainly the 
good work that he has done, especially many of the themes that he has 
talked about as far as volunteerism and helping our young people. I had 
the opportunity to visit briefly with a group called Kids in Motion in 
Hannibal, MO, which is interesting because this was actually started, I 
think, 2 years ago, or last summer, that took at-risk youth in the 
Hannibal communities. This was not a government program. This was 
largely the efforts of two women, two businesswomen who chose to try to 
make a difference. And so they reached out to the business community to 
have jobs that would pay young people to try to help provide some 
positive role models, a little bit of institutional setting in the 
sense of teaching them how to get up on time and to get themselves 
ready for work. It was just an extraordinary experience when you 
realize that there is this sort of spirit in a small town where you 
recognize that there is a community problem, or a problem within your 
community, and rather than reach out to the government for some sort of 
assistance, here are two women that chose on their own accord to try to 
make a difference. I think this spirit pervades across the country. We 
need to help reinvigorate that spirit.
  Mr. PEASE. I really believe in that. I believe it is our 
responsibility as a Congress to make it possible for folks to give more 
of themselves as volunteers, to reduce the tax burden on American 
families so that they have more time to spend with their families and 
as volunteers in their churches and in community organizations, to 
reinvigorate that tradition of American volunteerism that has persisted 
despite all of the time that we have taken away from families having to 
work to pay their taxes. I think it is our responsibility to give them 
back that time and that freedom. I know as the gentleman has seen, so 
many will step forward as volunteers to help in their communities and 
it is exciting to see that happen.
  Mr. HULSHOF. I appreciate the gentleman. I see that our colleague 
from out West in Colorado is here and appears to have some visual aid 
along with him. I would be happy to yield to the gentleman from 
Colorado, Mr. Bob Schaffer.
  Mr. BOB SCHAFFER of Colorado. I thank the gentleman from Missouri for 
yielding.
  It was a great month out in Colorado. Colorado, of course, being a 
western State with our sense of rugged individualism, we do not like 
Washington all that much, I have to admit, and I am afraid to say, and 
for good reason in many cases.
  Since being elected to Congress, hardly a day has gone by when 
somebody does not run up to me at the grocery store or the post office 
and say, ``Congressman, I've been working harder, I've been working 
longer and it seems like I take less and less home,'' and that 
perception is in fact the reality over the years, and it is one that 
has really been the source of frustration for people throughout the 
country and it is the message that I think inspired many of us to run 
for office in the first place. Fortunately with the Republican 
majority, we are able to go to work on those very issues right here on 
this floor.
  The package that we constructed a month ago, the tax cut package, is 
something that changed the message that I heard this last month being 
back home. Rather than the consistent complaints that we have always 
heard about high and excessive taxation here in Washington, I began to 
hear people at the grocery store and the post office coming up and 
thanking me for pushing and helping to support the Republican tax 
reform message again that we constructed a month ago. Let me suggest 
that it is a good first step and it is welcome news, but it is not the 
full measure of tax relief. We are going to come back and try to push 
for more at another point in time. But for the first time in 16 years, 
the American public has received a tax cut package. The first time in 
16 years.
  Let me just go through some of the numbers on this and tell about 
what I heard back home in response. Over 10 years, $260 billion in 
taxes, that is what we will pay, fewer taxes that we will pay as 
opposed to the plan that was constructed when the Democrats were in 
charge of the Congress. That includes a $500 per child tax credit, the 
capital gains tax cuts, the estate tax relief, education tax credit, 
expanded IRAs. Those individuals who understand that they have been 
paying more and more and more to the Federal Government and working 
harder and harder are exactly right. Let me direct my colleagues' 
attention to the chart here at my left.
  Back in 1950, the Federal tax burden was 6 percent of the family 
budget. In 1994, the Federal tax burden jumped to 23 percent. That is a 
remarkable escalation in the tax bite that this Federal Government has 
taken away from American families. When we consider all taxes, State, 
local and Federal taxes, the total tax burden is almost 40 percent of a 
family budget. The farmers and ranchers and small business owners and 
the heads of families that I met with tell me that that 40 percent is 
far too excessive. I was in a Labor Day parade on Monday in the small 
town of Windsor in Colorado. Windsor is one of those towns that is just 
your typical American small town. Great patriotic families, people who 
love their work, love their community, will stand up for the flag and 
love their country, a town that has sent many, many war heroes to do 
battle to defend freedom and liberty. After that parade we held a 
little

[[Page H6769]]

barbecue and the numbers of individuals who came up and said thank you 
for cutting the capital gains taxes because that has real implications 
on running a capital intensive operation like a farm, thank you for 
cutting the estate taxes, the inheritance tax because now after working 
30 years and putting all of my hard work and assets into a farm that 
produces and is successful, I finally know that I am going to be able 
to hand that farm over to my children. Think about that for a moment. 
Having the prospect of working so many years and putting so much into 
the ground and into the soil and into the family farm, that farm is 
more than just an economic enterprise. It is the definition of the 
character of many in the West and many in my State, most people in my 
State. The very notion that upon your death the Federal Government will 
get there first before your children do is something that just 
frightens the daylights out of many people. We are finally providing 
real hope, real opportunity. The suggestion that we have changed 
Washington as a Republican Party, that we have come here and have 
decided that the estate taxes must end, that we at our first step will 
reduce the effect of estate taxation, eventually getting to the point 
of abolishing them, I hope.

                              {time}  1945

  That is a message that was just embraced throughout the district, and 
it was a delight to go home and hear that.
  I also attended a conference sponsored by the Independence Institute, 
and the Independence Institute is a free market organization, and the 
topic they were discussing was welfare reform, because last year the 
Republican Congress totally revised the welfare system in the United 
States and moved welfare authority out of Washington and pushed it back 
to the States in block grant fashion.
  Let me tell you, it was truly exciting to go to these meetings with 
State legislators, with county commissioners, with local welfare 
workers, and hear them talk about the remarkable things that they are 
coming up with to reform the welfare system, to actually create systems 
on a county-by-county basis where people can make the transition from 
dependency on the Federal Government to total self-sufficiency.
  And the numbers were remarkable as well. The numbers of people that 
are making that transition and finding the absolute joy of honest hard 
work and self-sufficiency is one of the most exciting things, I think, 
that I could have heard, and again thanking the Republican Congress for 
changing the way the government thinks about how we organize our 
society.
  We are no longer looking to Washington and people here in the city of 
big government to organize and manage our lives. We have discovered, we 
have decided, and we have fought very hard for and passionately for a 
government that believes we can trust citizens, we can trust taxpayers, 
we can trust them to spend the dollars that the government used to take 
from them and allow them to put it toward the things that they believe 
to be important. They are small businesses, they are farms, they are 
child health care, the charity of their choice, their church, their 
synagogue, their community.
  And we have also decided that within that framework we are going to 
create more opportunity in a way that frees people from the burden of 
an oppressive welfare state and instead rewards honest hard work, real 
opportunity, and makes Americans free again.
  That is the real difference that we have made here in Washington, and 
I can tell you it is not just talk after 1 month being back in the 
district and talking with constituents and being in your district, too, 
by the way. Mr. Thune from South Dakota spent a little time, a couple 
days, traveling through South Dakota. It is a consistent message: The 
work that we have accomplished here in Washington is hitting home, it 
is making a big difference, and the American public is responding very 
favorably.
  Mr. THUNE. If the gentleman will yield on that point, I think you 
make an important point, because one thing has been lost, and sometimes 
in people's minds, is the important changes that were made in the area 
of welfare reform, and I think it points to the fact that the American 
public was leading the way on the issue because they arrived at the 
conclusion long before Washington did that the current welfare system 
was an abysmal failure, and you did not have to look very far to see 
that, and what is encouraging in listening to Mr. Pease from Indiana 
who was here earlier talking about volunteerism and about the 
restoration of values in this country that have built it and made it 
great, things like the work ethic, like personal responsibility, self-
discipline, those are the things that are really encouraging, and I 
think the American public led the way on that.
  I think that Washington finally got the picture, and we have changed 
the mentality and the philosophy in this town, finally, to recognize as 
well that we needed a new model and something that again put a premium 
and a value and a priority on those types of values and that kind of an 
ethic. And that is the thing that has been really encouraging again 
about getting out there and hearing that from people, and I hope that 
we will continue to be the impetus that will move us in a direction on 
other issues that restores power back home, out of Washington, DC.
  And welfare reform is a perfect example of that, is something for 
which the Members of this body and the last Congress should take great 
credit because they have redefined and changed the way that America 
thinks about that important issue.
  I am delighted to hear that the gentleman from Colorado made his way 
to our State of South Dakota and helped our tourism economy out there. 
We hope that you will come back often.
  Mr. HULSHOF. Mr. Speaker, I was asked this question, you get a lot of 
different questions when you are at these town meetings and hosting 
these listening posts, but this one question had me stumped for a 
second. I was asked by a constituent if I could only pass one bill in 
this Chamber, what would that one bill be. And I say, well, if I could 
write it and could make sure that it would actually be enacted into 
law, it would be this: that the parents of our children would teach 
their children individual responsibility and right from wrong.
  But clearly that bill cannot be passed; that bill will never see the 
light of day. It is not government's place to take the place of a 
family. That is something that we have to encourage families to do, 
many of the themes that you just mentioned. But if we could pass any 
bill, that would be it, to help parents teach kids, their own children, 
responsibility and right from wrong.
  But again I would be happy to yield.
  Mr. THUNE. Well, I was just going to say I think what is encouraging 
to me as I travel in my State, and I think around this country, is we 
are seeing a resurgence of an emphasis upon those types of things. I 
think for years there has been an expectation that government could 
solve many of these problems, but I think Washington is realizing, as I 
said earlier, what families and churches and communities have known all 
along, and that is that it is the self-initiative, it is the ability to 
take these things into their own hands and to help resolve those 
issues, and to provide the kind of model and the kind of atmosphere in 
which these types of values can be nurtured and grown, and one of the 
things that was really stymieing that was the welfare system that has 
been in place for the past 30 years, and when that was changed, it 
broke the chain of dependency upon an old system that was outdated and 
did not work, and it created, I think it renewed, this whole attitude 
that we are seeing in this country that the things that you just 
mentioned, the importance of hard work, individual responsibility, 
self-discipline, the work ethic, the things that again have been the 
building blocks.
  I mean, we cannot legislate that, but, frankly, we can do a lot, I 
think, to create an atmosphere in which those things will thrive, and 
that is really again what we are about here.
  Mr. HULSHOF. In order to be geographically correct, I know we have 
heard from the Midwest and certainly from the West, but to make sure 
that we have all parts of this great land covered, I am happy to yield 
to the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pappas].
  Mr. PAPPAS. I thank the gentleman, and once again I appreciate the 
opportunity to participate in this and to

[[Page H6770]]

view the visual aids of my friend from Colorado. I always look forward 
to what he is to present.

  My month back in New Jersey was pretty diverse, as it normally is, 
even when I am just home for a weekend. The highlight of my month 
really, though, was the annual Somerset County 4-H Fair, which is my 
home county which I am very proud of.
  We talk about our fair as the largest free fair east of the 
Mississippi, and we believe that it is. It is a 3-day event. This was 
our 49th annual fair, and typically during that 3 days we have anywhere 
between 75,000 and 80,000 people attend the event. It is one that I am 
proud to be a part of.
  I have been an adult volunteer there for many years and mainly 
because of the wholesome environment and wholesome activities that the 
4-H program provides.
  We, again, in our county are proud of the fact that it is the largest 
4-H program in the State of New Jersey and one that I know is prevalent 
in many communities throughout the United States and really throughout 
the world.
  4-H, though, is not just for agricultural areas. While parts of my 
district, agriculture is very strong, yes, even in New Jersey 
agriculture is an important part of our economy, but the activities, 
the ways in which young people can grow and can be involved again in 
activities that help them as individuals and help them grow and expand 
their horizons and their experiences in life, are such that I think it 
is very important and why I support it as much as I do.
  The activities that center around county fairs in my part of the 
country, in the State of New Jersey, I think adds to the attractiveness 
of the range of activities in our State. My district runs from the 
western part of the State, the shores of the Delaware River, and it 
runs to the east, almost to the Atlantic Ocean, and while I do not have 
any of the coast, as we call it the Jersey shore, as part of my 
district, the economy of my district and the people of my district, as 
I do, take advantage of the Jersey shore. And during the course of the 
month I had an opportunity to visit many of the shore communities.
  Tourism is the second largest part of New Jersey's economy, and I 
believe that the activities along the Jersey shore and activities such 
as the Somerset County 4-H Fair add to that economic activity of our 
State.
  Another couple of things that were a part of my month were meeting 
with many business people, business men and women. Early part of 
August, I was the participant of an all-day seminar that was hosted by 
the Princeton Chamber of Commerce, which is a very prominent community 
in my district. They have done this for several years and have had a 
Member of Congress there to meet with their membership one on one, 
which I did for about an hour and a half of the morning session, spoke 
to a group of CEOs in the morning, at breakfast, and then spoke to 
their general membership at lunch and participated in several Q and A 
sessions, and they were thrilled, to say the least, of the approved 
balanced budget plan that we enacted and the President signed and, of 
course, the tax relief measures.
  But they reminded me, and was not anything that they needed to remind 
me, but it is important to hear it and important to know that people 
understand that the balanced budget plan is just that, it is a plan. It 
is a plan that is only good if we follow it, and it is a plan that will 
take several years to enact to see that very important goal of a 
balanced budget become a reality. I am certainly committed to that, and 
they understand that it is important for them, for their employees, for 
the future of their businesses, and, in turn, for the future of many of 
those who are employers.
  I was encouraged to see how enthusiastic they were about that, but 
equally as important, the tax relief measure. I have said here, and I 
have said this in my district and in other parts of our State, that the 
tax relief measure is a first step to what I will hope to see several 
steps, second step beginning next year, and you, Mr. Hulshof, as a 
member of the Committee on Ways and Means, I know will be very active 
in seeing additional tax relief measures put forth and that we can 
debate and consider here in the Congress. That is something that I am 
committed to.
  Just this afternoon, I spoke to a gentleman who is a small 
businessman in the central part of my district. He had e-mailed me and 
was frustrated over what he viewed as the abandonment of the Republican 
majority of our commitment to provide for tax and regulatory relief, 
and in speaking to him I corresponded with him, but I decided to 
telephone him as well to let him know, to assure him, that that is not 
the case, that what we in the House, Republican side, are attempting to 
do is to govern in a bipartisan fashion, recognizing that President 
Clinton, while he may not agree to the desire of tax relief that many 
of us would like to see, yet we need to meet each other halfway and 
that we have not abandoned our principles, we view this as a first step 
and that we are committed, just as he is, to trying to see things such 
as the elimination of the capital gains tax and the elimination of the 
death tax as goals just as important as the plan to see a budget that 
is in balance.
  So I heard for that 4-week period what I hear on the telephone during 
the week when I am here through letters, through the time that I am 
home during weekends or long weekends, and I was just very happy to see 
that people are encouraged, people do have hope, but they also 
recognize that it is an ongoing process and one that they are willing 
to work with us on seeing those goals become realities.
  Mr. HULSHOF. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
  I was in Wentzville, MO, on the eastern side of my district at the 
high school, and it was pointed out to me that in a normal day, if you 
just consider your actions of a normal day, when you wake up and grab a 
first cup of coffee you are paying a sales tax, when you drive to work 
you pay a gas tax, when you get to work you pay an income tax, when you 
flip on the light you pay an electricity tax, when you flush the toilet 
you pay a water tax, when you get home, if you are lucky enough to have 
a home, you pay a property tax, and, as we have talked about, if you 
are fortunate enough to work hard and save and want to pass on to the 
next generation, your kids, your descendents, then there is the 
Government wanting another bite with this Federal death tax.
  The problem is not that people do not pay enough, the problem is that 
we here in Washington have been spending too much, and I think we have 
begun to try to get our arms wrapped around this problem of wasteful 
Washington spending, and, as you mentioned, it is simply a plan. We 
need to continue to make sure that the people in this body, certainly 
we want to provide for the essential services, but make sure that the 
people that come here from all parts of the country recognize that this 
is a critically important goal that we need to continue our path toward 
a balanced budget.
  Mr. DAN SCHAEFER of Colorado. If the gentleman will yield, I am so 
glad that the gentleman from New Jersey is here, Mr. Pappas, because I 
remember when we first met as freshmen coming here, the first thing out 
of Mike Pappas' mouth was home office deduction.

                              {time}  2000

  We have got to get the home office deduction for small business 
people back in my home district. That is true in my area as well, as we 
talk about making the welfare transition from dependency to complete 
independence, to realizing the economic trends taking place in America 
toward smaller businesses and independent employment.
  Our goal as Republicans has been in this Congress to try to find ways 
to triple the number of minority-owned businesses throughout the 
country as well. I have to tell you, when I went back home I heard so 
many people thanking us that Mike Pappas' legislation made it into the 
final tax cut bill on the home office deduction.
  Finally, we are going to be able to provide parity to small business 
owners, parity with respect to the expenses associated with running a 
business out of your home that large employers enjoy throughout the 
country as well.
  Since you are here tonight, I want to thank you, and just let you and 
the constituents back in New Jersey know that this is an important item 
that you fought for that has had a tremendous

[[Page H6771]]

impact, not just in your home State of New Jersey, but had an impact in 
Missouri, South Dakota and Colorado.
  You can drop me out of an airplane in a parachute anywhere in this 
country, and I guarantee people struggling to be entrepreneurs and 
finding a way to get their small business open and operating out of 
their homes appreciate the jobs created, thanks to the home office 
deduction. Would the gentleman talk a little more about that?
  Mr. HULSHOF. If the gentleman would yield, I also wanted to ask you, 
you have had the opportunity I think to go into another district in 
Colorado, I think that of another freshman Member. Did you go into the 
inner city of Denver at one point? With regard to some of these themes, 
you talk about the minority business people. Did you talk about some of 
these conservative principles back in Denver?
  Mr. BOB SCHAFFER of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
inquiring about that. My district, the 4th district of Colorado, is 
essentially the eastern half of the State, a very rural area, about the 
size of Indiana in square mileage. My district does not include Denver, 
but I did an exchange with a Member of the other party where I spent a 
day in her district and she in mine. We went to inner-city Denver and 
spoke with minority business leaders and owners of the business 
community in inner-city Denver.
  The concern of the folks that we met with is very different than what 
you might expect in a setting of that nature. I did not hear requests 
for any kind of handout of any kind, any kind of preference program, 
anything along those lines that has come in Washington and in many 
places and seems to be what you would expect. It was just the opposite, 
asking for fewer government regulations, asking for the home office 
deduction, asking for 100 percent deductibility of health benefits for 
health care expenses for small employers, to get them to the same level 
where large employers are.
  These are the key elements, removing the barriers of a large, 
oppressive Federal bureaucracy from the natural entrepreneurial 
instincts that occur to all Americans in all settings. It was just 
remarkable, because it is the same message I hear in the rural parts of 
my district. Going to inner-city Denver, I heard the same message.
  This particular tax cut package that the Republicans crafted and 
constructed right here and passed and that we fought so hard for is 
really being embraced throughout the country. It is so exciting. And 
Mr. Pappas is exactly right, this is just the first step. It is a good 
start. But we are not finished, we are going to go back and get more 
and continue to fight to shrink the size of the government in 
Washington and expand the authority of real people, real, free people 
throughout America.
  Mr. PAPPAS. If the gentleman would yield, one thing that I remind 
people is that again this is a first step. This plan to balance the 
budget is just that, a plan that needs to be followed. But also taking 
up the suggestion of Speaker Gingrich, and that is people in my 
district believe that the tax on savings and investment and the death 
tax needs to be eliminated, that we need to band together and involve 
people in the community that may not have ever been involved in the 
legislative process before, to help educate people within our districts 
and the communities, to help make the people in the local media, who 
may not be involved in these issues as the national media is, aware 
that this is important for everyone's future, and not just the rich as 
is too often heard in this Chamber, but for small business people, 
their employees, people who could be employed by small- and medium-
sized businesses in the future.
  So those that may be watching this, whether you live in the central 
New Jersey area or the 12th district of Colorado or Missouri or South 
Dakota, if you are interested in being a part of this, contact any of 
us, contact Members of Congress who really are desirous of organizing 
public education activities to see this ball moved down the field, so 
to speak.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the hard work of the gentleman 
from New Jersey, and the things that he has pointed out here are 
important to all of us.
  I guess as our time is winding down, I want to pick up on one note 
that was made earlier, and that is that one of the things that we have 
to, I think, insist upon in Washington, is accountability.
  As we move forward now, having balanced this budget, the gentleman 
talked about the fact that we have got the blueprint there, but we have 
to be conscientious and see that it is enforced.
  One of the other things that I think we need to take very seriously 
is the so-called Results Act which has been passed by the Congress. It 
goes into effect this year. For the people in this country, we spend 
$1.6 trillion taxpayer dollars on the Federal Government, and the 
estimates are that as much as $350 billion is lost through fraud, waste 
and abuse, some $23 billion in the Medicare program alone, which 
represents 14 percent of their total budget allocated dollars.
  So one of the things we do have to, I think, as we go through the 
process continue to try to root out, and that is all the spending in 
government that is over and above what is necessary to get the job 
done.
  The people in this country expect Washington to be accountable. They 
deserve to have Washington be accountable. I think that that, too, is 
an important part. Think about the tax cut that we could do. $350 
billion in waste, fraud and abuse. Figure out what that would translate 
to the average person in this country in terms of lower taxes, or 
investments in other types of things that might be important to the 
future of this country. But instead of having it lost through the 
waste, the fraud and the abuse that so oftentimes is endemic in big 
government and bureaucracy, that is the kind of thing that we are going 
to continue to focus upon, try and root that out, and see that those 
savings are passed on to the hard-working men and women in this 
country.

  So I think that too is an important point and something that I think 
all of us are very concerned about and want to continue to pursue as 
part of our agenda for the future.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back to the gentleman from Missouri. I think our 
time is winding up.
  Mr. HULSHOF. I think the gentleman is correct. I again appreciate my 
colleagues for joining me and participating in this special order.
  I think, Mr. Speaker, to those naysayers that have picked apart these 
past weeks' aspects of what we have done here, we should not let the 
perfect be the enemy of the good. Clearly we are not here to rest on 
past accomplishments. We have a tremendous amount of work yet to do, 
and we have just touched the surface.
  Mr. Thune talked about trying to crack down on fraud and abuse in 
many of these programs. I know one of the things on the agenda we will 
be focusing on, Mr. Pappas mentioned the Committee on Ways and Means. 
We are going to be focusing on how to restructure possibly the Internal 
Revenue Service.
  Everybody talks about trying to simplify the Tax Code. We need to 
continue to have those discussions, beyond just having Presidential 
candidates come forward and say this is what we ought to do. I think 
this is a dialog we have to get the American people on board with us, 
whether they favor just the Tax Code that we have and simplifying that, 
or whether they favor a flat income tax or a national consumption tax, 
a sales tax or the like.
  But our efforts to restructure the IRS, whether it is the highway 
bill, the infrastructure, investing in roads and bridges that are so 
needed across the country, or as another freshman Member, we are 
talking about education. This is the time everybody is heading back to 
school or colleges and universities. The fact is we have to get more 
money than is presently appropriated back into the classrooms, so 
teachers are not having to dig in their own pockets and purchase school 
supplies to educate the kids that are entrusted to them.
  There are so many things we have yet to do. But I think in our quest 
for progress, we have to continue to stay on the path. I think we are 
committed to doing that, certainly as this freshman class is on this 
side and many on the other side, of trying to work with politics of 
cooperation, rather than politics of confrontation.

[[Page H6772]]



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