[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 144 (Monday, October 12, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H10565]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




REPUBLICAN-CONTROLLED CONGRESS HAS HAD GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN LAST 2 
                                 YEARS

  (Mr. WELLER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WELLER. Mr. Speaker, I look back over the last 2 years, and I 
have listened to a lot of rhetoric on the left side. And coming from 
the left there are a lot of those who have said, they just cannot do 
it. Two years ago, they said, Republicans cannot balance the budget. 
They said, the Republicans cannot balance the budget and cut taxes for 
the middle class. They said, the Republicans cannot reform the welfare 
system. They said, the Republicans cannot fix the IRS; and they said, 
the Republicans cannot balance the budget and help schools at the same 
time. Well, we did.
  In the last 2 years, this Republican Congress has had great 
accomplishments: balancing the budget for the first time in 28 years, 
cutting taxes for the middle class for the first time in 16 years, 
reforming welfare for the first time in a generation, taming the tax 
collector for the first time ever; and when we balanced the budget, we 
increased funding for education by 10 percent.
  Today, we have the lowest student loan interest rate in 17 years. We 
doubled Pell Grants for low-income students who qualified, twice what 
they gave. We increased funding for Head Start, for Special Ed. We can 
save Social Security, and we can help our schools.

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