[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 16 (Tuesday, February 6, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H191-H192]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      HONORING FORMER PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN ON HIS 90TH BIRTHDAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Akin). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, on this 90th birthday of Ronald Reagan, I 
think all of us should be inspired; and we unfortunately are a country 
that has grown so cynical that, okay, it is not cool to say something 
nice about Ronald Reagan because I am a Democrat or it is not good to 
say something about Jimmy Carter because I am a Republican. Yet, I 
think all people who have served in public service in the courthouses, 
in the school boards and in the Nation's Capital, in the State 
legislatures around the country deserve respect for their contributions 
and for their attempts to make the world a better place.
  I was a college student when I first knew of Ronald Reagan. He was 
running for President in 1976. I was in the Ford camp, but I listened 
to his speeches very carefully and realized over the next several years 
that he, in fact, had something to contribute and something to say.
  Reagan's ideas, I would say, were probably basic conservative 
philosophies of less government, of individualism, of people solving 
problems and not government solving problems, and yet beyond that there 
seemed to be something else in him, a little twinkle in the eye that 
maybe captured our imagination; in the words of a poet, maybe took the 
ordinary and made them extraordinary, and had this ability to galvanize 
the people of America to try to do their best. In his inaugural 
address, his closing line was, ``Good Morning, America.'' And he would 
say repeatedly, after all, we are America; America, where great things 
happen.
  I had the opportunity this weekend to hear our new President, George 
W. Bush, speak, and I saw a lot of the same tendencies, a sincerity. 
The ideas are ideas that we in this Congress have debated many, many 
times, and yet there seems to be something new. There seems right now 
to be a new energy, a new chemistry in this town.
  People, I think, Democrat and Republicans, are excited. Here we have 
a President of the United States who went to the Republican retreat 
this weekend, where we were doing our budget planning. No big deal, a 
Republican President going to a Republican retreat. Yet, after that he 
went to the Democrat retreat to talk to them, to reach out to them. 
Indeed, he has met several times over the past couple of weeks with 
Democrat group after Democrat group, Democrat leader after Democrat 
leader, holding out his hands.
  In that Republican retreat this weekend, rather than taking a 
partisan swing at the Democrats, who often were not so kind to him and 
did not show the same benevolent spirit or the magnanimity that he has, 
he held everything up with high integrity. He referred to Mr. Daschle 
with great respect. He referred to the institution of Congress and the 
passing of legislation with great respect.
  I am looking forward to working with this gentleman. I like his ideas 
on education, local control for local school boards, the teacher in the 
classroom who knows the kids' names, where she will have a lot more 
input in the process. After all, that teacher knows what the needs of 
the classroom are. More professionals, more computers, more classroom 
space, more bricks and mortar. The teacher who knows the children's 
names, who knows which ones need a hugging and which ones need an A or 
a B; they are the ones who should be leading education, not the 
bureaucracy out of Washington, D.C.
  I am very interested in his passion for education.
  On the subject of taxes, it is just this easy: If you knew that the 
Federal Government could operate, pay all of our obligations and all of 
our normal functions of government on your contribution as a taxpayer, 
you would probably say, okay, I do not like paying my taxes but you 
need the money,

[[Page H192]]

fine. But if you found out we could do it on less than what you were 
paying in, you would probably want the money back.
  I had the opportunity to talk to a little girl at Johnson High School 
over the break. She had a job, senior in high school, made $7.00 an 
hour. So I said to her, Julie, if you work for two hours, you make $14. 
Do you get to take it all home?
  She said, no. I have to pay about $4 in taxes.
  I said, okay. On the $14 you earn, you have to pay $4 in taxes. If 
you knew that I could run the government on $3.50 of that money, what 
would you want me to do with the extra 50 cents?
  She said, give it back to me.
  Now, why does she want it back and what is she going to do with that 
money? She is going to buy more CDs, more hamburgers, fill up her tank 
a few more times; and when she does that, she stimulates the economy, 
businesses expand, jobs are created, more opportunities, more people 
are working. Therefore, less people are on welfare, more are paying 
taxes, more paying into the system than taking out of the system, and 
it is a win/win. It is what Adam Smith, the great economist, called the 
invisible hand of America that makes the whole engine thrive.
  If this senior in high school at Johnson High in Savannah, Georgia, 
could understand that, why is it so many people in Washington are 
confused about it? The surplus does not belong to the government. It 
belongs to the 17-year-old Julies around the country, and Bush 
understands this. I am looking forward to working with the new 
President on this.
  On Social Security, he supports a lockbox. He says, we are going to 
save Social Security, not just for the next election but for the next 
generation. And in doing so, we are not going to change benefits for 
near-retirees or for retirees. We are not going to have a tax increase, 
and that is important. And from there on we are going to work on a 
bipartisan basis to do what is best for the American people.
  The reason I believe that we have a new President and a new 
administration in the White House is because George Bush dared to stick 
his foot in the water of issues. Rather than skirting around the edge, 
he got into the water. I think the American people are ready for a 
substantive debate on real issues that affect all of us.
  So on this birthday of Ronald Reagan, let me wish the Reagan family 
the best, but let me also wish the best to the Bush family and make a 
pledge that this Member of Congress is ready to work.

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