[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15904]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       PRESIDENT TAKES CREDIT FOR WHAT REPUBLICANS HAVE ACHIEVED

  (Mr. CHABOT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Speaker, Republicans have had to get used to hearing 
the President take credit for what Republicans have achieved many times 
despite what the President himself desired.
  Take welfare reform, for example. Republicans forced the President to 
sign welfare reform in 1996, something that he had refused to pass when 
the Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress. He signed welfare 
reform only after vetoing it twice and only then in an election year, 
with promises to undo it as soon as he got the chance. And then he took 
credit for it.
  Now, the President is taking credit for the first budget surplus 
since the Mets won the pennant back in 1996 despite the fact that it 
was the Republicans who forced him to scrap his initial budget plans, 
which had huge deficits as far as the eye could see.
  Ronald Reagan once said that you can accomplish a great deal if you 
do not worry about who takes credit for it.
  So let us save Social Security, save Medicare, pay down the national 
debt, and give the American people substantial tax relief even if the 
President takes credit for it.

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