[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14720]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



           IT TAKES A REPUBLICAN CONGRESS TO GET THE JOB DONE

  (Mr. CHABOT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Speaker, President Clinton ran an ad in his first 
presidential campaign back in 1992 in which he said he wanted to end 
welfare as we know it. Then what happened? Well, he had a Democrat-
controlled Congress for the first 2 years of his term, and what did 
they do on welfare reform? Nothing.
  The American people decided it was time for a change in 1994, just 2 
years later, and elected a Republican majority in the House for the 
first time in 40 years. The Republican Congress passed welfare reform; 
the President vetoed it. And then we passed it again, and then he 
vetoed it a second time. We finally passed it a third time shortly 
before the election, and the President finally signed it into law, and 
then he took credit for it.
  The liberals had ranted and raved that welfare reform, because it 
passed, we would see people starving in the streets. Well, just about 
everybody now agrees that the welfare reform has been one of the 
greatest success stories in years. Millions of people who were stuck, 
who were trapped on welfare are now working and supporting themselves 
and their own children instead of relying on their fellow taxpayers to 
support them.
  Mr. Speaker, it took a Republican Congress to get the job done.

                          ____________________