[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 145 (Friday, October 24, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H9503]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RADICAL REPUBLICANS USHER IN AN AMERICA OF MORE CHOICE, FREEDOM, AND 
                                LIBERTY

  (Mr. TIAHRT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, the 13th amendment of our Constitution says, 
``Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within the 
United States.'' Today we take that for granted, and for that I am 
thankful. It is still our standard, our ideal. But the 13th amendment 
only came to be the law of the land because of the insistence and 
persistence of a group of Republicans that were called radical. Radical 
Republicans.
  Well, Mr. Speaker, today those who are protectors of big government 
and big unions are criticizing new ideas by calling the Republicans 
radical, extreme, mean-spirited, in hopes of swinging public opinion in 
their favor.
  They do not trust people to choose their own schools. That threatens 
the big teachers unions, so they call school vouchers radical. They 
oppose IRS reform because they believe taxpayers should be 
automatically guilty in an IRS tax audit because big government must be 
funded, so IRS reform is extreme.
  Mr. Speaker, remember, when we hear ``radical,'' ``extreme'' or 
``mean-spirited,'' it is not new. Radical Republicans insisted on 
abolishing slavery and today these derogatory words are just ushering 
in a better America of more choice, more freedom, and more liberty.

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