[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 50 (Tuesday, April 13, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H1870]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   SPECIFICS OF THE REPUBLICAN AGENDA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELLER. Mr. Speaker, I thought I would take a few minutes to kind 
of report on what the last couple weeks were like when I was back home 
spending time with my constituents during the district work period, 
conducting 15 town meetings, and I wanted to report today on really the 
response to the Republican agenda of good schools and low taxes and a 
secure retirement for all Americans.
  I have the privilege of representing a very, very diverse district, 
the south side of Chicago in the south suburbs of Cook and Will 
Counties as well as a lot of rural and bedroom communities, and one 
always listens for the common concerns when they represent a diverse 
district of cities, suburbs and country.
  During the last two weeks I got a pretty good response. People were 
very supportive of the Republican agenda of strengthening our local 
schools, of lowering the tax burden for the middle class, of making for 
a secure retirement for all Americans by strengthening Medicare and 
Social Security.
  I would like to take a few minutes just to talk about some of those 
specifics of our Republican agenda, and of course let me begin with the 
Republican efforts to strengthen Social Security and to strengthen 
Medicare for the next three generations.
  Mr. Speaker, I am often asked a common question over the last several 
years that I have had the privilege of being in the Congress, and that 
question is: When are you politicians in Washington going to stop 
raiding the Social Security Trust Fund? I was pleased to tell my 
constituents that this is the year we are going to do that. This is the 
year we are going to wall off the Social Security Trust fund and say, 
``Hands off,'' and my constituents frankly were pretty shocked when 
they learned that the Clinton-Gore budget actually raids the Social 
Security trust fund by $351 billion.
  I think it is important to note that when we compare Republican 
efforts to wall off the Social Security Trust Fund, which means 100 
percent of Social Security according to this chart for Social Security 
versus the Clinton-Gore proposal for 62 percent of the Social Security 
Trust Fund going to Social Security and the other 38 percent being 
spent on other things, that is what this means. The President wants to 
spend 38 percent of Social Security on new government programs. 
Republicans, of course, want to wall off the Social Security Trust 
Fund, essentially putting trust back in the trust fund with 100 percent 
of Social Security for Social Security, and that is a big victory.

  Mr. Speaker, I also want to note that the Republican budget sets 
aside almost $400 billion more than the Clinton-Gore budget for 
Medicare and Social Security.
  Now our second priority in our agenda, of course, is lower taxes for 
the middle class, and I am one who believes that when the tax burden 
for the average family in Illinois is about 40 percent of their income 
going to local, State and Federal Government for taxes, that that tax 
burden is too high and we need to lower the tax burden, particularly 
for the middle class. And when we talk about the tax burden, I find 
that constituents, whether it is at the union hall or the VFW or the 
local Chamber of Commerce, they tell me that the Tax Code is too 
complicated, requires too much paperwork, and the majority of people 
have to hire someone else to fill out the tax forms. And I also point 
out that the tax burden is really unfair.
  As we work this year to lower the tax burden, I believe that our top 
priority should be to simplify the Tax Code, to address the unfairness 
in the Tax Code, and of course we need to begin by eliminating the 
marriage tax penalty. Is it right, is it fair that 21 million married 
working couples on average pay $1,400 more in higher taxes just because 
they are married, $1,400 more than an identical couple living together 
outside a marriage? That is wrong, that our Tax Code punishes marriage.
  The Marriage Tax Elimination Act has 230 cosponsors. Let us get it 
done this year. Let us simplify the Tax Code and eliminate the marriage 
tax penalty.
  Of course the Republican agenda, a secure retirement and lower taxes 
also includes strengthening our local schools, and we want to 
strengthen our local schools by empowering our local school boards and 
our local teachers and our local parents to run their schools and 
giving them the flexibility, of course, to meet the needs of local 
communities, and that is an important shift because previously for 30 
to 40 years all the power was moving to Washington. And I talk with 
local school administrators and school board members. They tell me 
maybe in Illinois 6 percent of our public schools' budget comes from 
Washington, but so does two-thirds of the paperwork and almost 100 
percent of the mandates, micromanaging how our schools are run.
  We want to let local schools run themselves and meet the needs of 
their local communities, and that is why we want to pass the Ed Flex 
legislation. My hope, it will be on the President's desk fairly soon.
  The other concern that local school board members also share with me 
is they say, as my colleagues know, ``You've increased funding at the 
Federal level by 10 percent, even while you've been balancing the 
budget, increasing funding for education, but if you look at how those 
dollars have been spent, only 70 cents of every dollar actually reaches 
the classroom. Thirty cents is lost in the Washington bureaucracy.''
  Our goal is to ensure that more dollars get to the classroom, with a 
goal of 95 cents on the dollar reaching the classroom, and if we 
compare that to the current cost of delivering those funds to our local 
schools, that is a 25 percent funding increase above and beyond what 
they are currently receiving. We are providing $22 billion in Federal 
funding for our local schools. It is just wrong that 30 cents on the 
dollar currently is lost in Washington.
  Let us help our local schools. Let us lower the tax burden for the 
middle class. Let us secure retirement by strengthening Medicare and 
Social Security.

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