[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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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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