[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2691]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1300

                    WHO DECIDES: WASHINGTON OR YOU?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Stearns). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Linder) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LINDER. Mr. Speaker, I am not certain how many Americans heard 
well the President's recent speeches, but his comments spoke volumes 
about his views of freedom. It also addressed the great political 
debate going on in this country today which has been going on since 
1994, and it can be summed up on a bumper sticker: ``Who Decides, 
Washington or You?''
  The President, in Buffalo shortly after the State of the Union 
address, was discussing the surplus, a huge surplus, nearly $5 trillion 
over the next 15 years, to be collected by the government above and 
beyond what we need to spend to continue the government, and this is 
what he said: ``We could give it all back to you and hope you spend it 
right, but----''
  That says volumes. The President then proceeded to imply he really 
cannot give it back to the American people because government makes 
wiser choices than they do. He does not trust the American people to 
make these choices on their own behalf. He has embraced in whole cloth, 
it seems to me, the theme of the 1958 book by John Kenneth Galbraith 
entitled, ``The Affluent Society.''
  The entire theme of that book is this: It is not that Americans have 
too little, they have too much, that they make bad choices with their 
dollars, and it is the obligation of an educated government to tax 
those dollars from them and make better choices on their behalf. Who 
decides, Washington or you?
  That is the debate we are in. That is the debate on taxes. Looking at 
nearly $5 trillion in surpluses over the next 15 years, the President 
proposed 40 new mandatory spending programs, adding new discretionary 
spending programs and not one penny for tax relief. Indeed, it does not 
even protect Social Security because we are increasing the debt to 
Social Security by about $1 trillion over 10 years that the government 
will owe it.
  In a recent book entitled, ``The Vision of the Anointed,'' Thomas 
Sowell points out that for so long as we have had free people, we have 
had among them those anointed with the vision of how to spend their 
money, how to make their choices for them.
  That is the debate we are in. The President would like to shape a 
future with your money for our children and grandchildren that is warm 
and secure and fair. Our side says, ``We don't know how to do that.'' I 
could not satisfy 10 percent of America because everyone comes to the 
table with different hopes and dreams and aspirations. I can shape a 
future that my daughter would love and my son would hate.
  So our side says, no, leave those choices in your pockets; and you 
and 270 million other Americans, acting on your own behalf hundreds of 
times a week, will shape the future. We trust you to shape that future. 
We believe in the Ronald Reagan principle: It is not the function of 
government to bestow happiness. That is your job. And if we can get the 
government out of your way and let you have more freedom and more 
opportunity, you will choose a future that most of America will not 
only enjoy but thrive in.
  We would like to do that beginning right now by letting you keep more 
of what you earn, not collecting $300 billion a year more than it takes 
us to run the government, and let you shape the future for us.

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