[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 78 (Friday, June 16, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H4177]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            FISCAL RESTRAINT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Price of Georgia). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McHenry) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, there is an ongoing joke here in Washington 
that the Democrats have no agenda. It is a joke, Mr. Speaker, and it 
would be very funny if it were not so true. There are ongoing press 
reports, just this week there is a press report that the Democrats 
planned to roll out their agenda this week. Well, it is funny because 
they decided not to. Well, it is also funny because this is a press 
report that goes back since November of last year. They keep having 
these press reports that say we are going to roll out our agenda next 
week. The next week comes and goes, and no Democrat agenda.
  It is an amazing thing that such a formerly great party with such 
high ideals and strong agenda can't even get together an election-year 
agenda. It is an amazing thing to me as a conservative who has an 
agenda, who is a member of a party who has an agenda. It is a wonderful 
thing that the party leadership won't come together. The party 
leadership won't come together and issue an agenda.
  Now I know there are some on the other side of the aisle that have 
high ideals and have an agenda, but the Democratic leadership in 
Washington won't come together and issue an agenda. I am hopeful they 
will because I think what their agenda will show, when they do issue 
their agenda, it will show two things: Waving the white flag on the war 
against Islamic extremists and raising taxes. It is a two-part agenda, 
and I am going to boil it down to those two things.
  They are going to wave the white flag and say this war is not worth 
fighting, let's bring all of our servicemen home. Let's just work with 
terrorist attacks on our home soil rather than taking the fight to the 
enemy wherever they are.
  The second part of that is big government. How do you have big 
government, Mr. Speaker? You have big government by having big taxes, 
by taking more out of the economy and bring it here to Washington, 
D.C., by taxing people more wherever they are in this Nation, Mr. 
Speaker, by taxing them more, and bringing that money here to 
Washington and running programs out of Washington.
  Big government liberalism is still at the heart of the Democratic 
Party, and that is something that is very out of step with what the 
American people want.
  Let's talk about what the Republicans have done and what our 
conservative leadership here in Washington has done. Just in the last 
33 months, we have had wonderful job growth across this Nation. Within 
the last 3 years, we have had 5.3 million new jobs. Why? Because we 
have restrained spending in Washington. Well, not as much as I would 
like as a conservative, but we have been able to restrain spending here 
in Washington, and excessive growth of government. And we have been 
able to pass tax cuts that let Americans keep more of what they earn.
  Those two things have led to this wonderful job creation, and that is 
why this House continued to pass tax cuts every year since we have 
taken the majority as Republicans. Every year we have passed tax cuts 
since 1995. And those results that we have shown the American people 
have led to the economy expanding.
  Moreover, when the economy expands and people have jobs through these 
lower taxes, through conservative fiscal policy, you know what happens? 
As they make more money, they pay more taxes. The Federal Government 
gets more revenue when people are working, Mr. Speaker.
  These things work, and the American people know it and they are 
benefiting from the prosperity that through conservative fiscal policy, 
we have helped lead the Nation in this right direction.
  So, Mr. Speaker, there is a very severe contrast between the two 
ideologies that underpin the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. 
They are two disparate views of the world and how we defend our Nation.
  Mr. Speaker, we should have this great debate, not just on the war, 
which we have had for the last 10 hours on the House floor, but we 
should also have a debate about fiscal policy.
  As a conservative, I don't believe we have done enough in terms of 
fiscal policy, but we are making progress and that progress is getting 
real results. That is a wonderful agenda for a conservative party to 
stand for. Now we look forward to our opposition on the other side of 
the aisle to one day to come up with an agenda.

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