[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 138 (Tuesday, October 6, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H9595]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       DO DEMOCRATS HAVE AGENDA?

  (Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, over the weekend I had the great pleasure 
of spending time with some of my constituents to let them know about 
our future agenda in the Republican Party. We discussed future 
surpluses in our Federal budget, we discussed the recently passed tax 
cuts targeting working, middle-class income American families. We 
discussed the benefits of the recently passed Patient Protection Act 
that makes health care more accessible, accountable and affordable.
  But then I got back to Washington and read in yesterday's Roll Call 
newspaper that Democrats do not even have an agenda. As a matter of 
fact, the argument cited a Democratic source who said that their party, 
quote, ``needs something to campaign on, and if the President doesn't 
use his veto pen, we (the Democrats) are in trouble.''
  Actually maybe I am reading this wrong. Perhaps the Democrats do have 
an agenda, an agenda to shut down the government. While this 
Republican-led Congress has delivered on its promises to balance the 
budget, provide meaningful tax cuts and to save Social Security, my 
liberal colleagues have no better agenda than to shut the government 
down.

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