[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 147 (Thursday, October 15, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H10922-H10923]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THIS IS NOT A DO-NOTHING CONGRESS

  (Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I am often amused when I hear Democrats 
say this is a do-nothing Congress. What they mean is we have done 
nothing towards increasing the taxes, we have done nothing towards 
increasing the size of government, and then nothing to further destroy 
the American dream which they seem to be so intent on.

[[Page H10923]]

 What we have done though is pass the first tax cut in 16 years, we 
have balanced the budget for the first time since 1969 when Woodstock 
was at Max Yasgur's farm, and Mod Squad was on TV, and Neil Armstrong 
was on the moon. We have reformed Medicare on a bipartisan basis. We 
have reformed welfare, and almost 40 percent of the people on welfare 
have gotten off it in the last 3 years. What have we done in this 
budget agreement? Strong drug interdiction, strong prevention and 
rehabilitation programs. What have we done for education? We have 
returned more dollars and more power and more flexibility to the local 
level where the teacher in the classroom gets most of the money, where 
the teacher in the classroom can make most of the decisions, where the 
teacher in the classroom can call the shots on how to teach Johnnie to 
read and how to teach Susie to read because they might be a little bit 
different in Georgia then they are in California or New York.
  These are important steps. This is not a do-nothing Congress.

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