[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 98 (Tuesday, July 13, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H5374]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    THE B.E.S.T. AGENDA FOR CONGRESS

  (Mr. GUTKNECHT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, back in January when this Congress 
convened, I told my constituents that I thought we ought to pursue what 
I called the B.E.S.T. agenda. B-E-S-T. B for balancing the budget; E 
for educational reforms that focus on giving local school districts and 
parents more flexibility in dealing with education issues; S for saving 
Social Security, something that is important to all of us but 
particularly to those of us who are baby boomers who were born after 
World War II; and T for tax relief and reform.
  Mr. Speaker, I am delighted that we are pursuing this agenda and we 
are making tremendous progress. Our budget resolution calls for not 
only a balanced budget this year, but for the first time actually 
securing every penny of Social Security taxes only for Social Security.
  Our educational reform, Ed-Flex, has already passed and is on its way 
to the States. Now we focus on tax relief.
  Mr. Speaker, let me suggest that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Archer) has put down his marker. Mr. Roth has put down his marker. The 
President is coming up with his own tax plan. But I hope at the end of 
the day there will be real tax relief for working families, and I hope 
we would focus first and foremost on eliminating the marriage penalty 
tax.

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