[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 368-369]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



           ENDING ACRIMONY AND BITTERNESS ON THE HOUSE FLOOR

  (Mr. FOLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, let me ask my colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle, if they will, to be a little patient. We are already hearing 
some ``foot dragging'' commentary on health care. We are hearing a lot 
of innuendos that somehow the Republicans are not getting to work. We 
just started.
  But I will tell you some of the things we did do last year. Paid down 
the debt, over $151 billion; paid do you know what we owe the taxpayers 
of the United States of America. Now we are going to have a chance for 
marriage penalty elimination. Talk about sensible tax relief for all 
taxpayers.
  So let us not start the rhetoric of this new year and this new 
millennium with accusations of foot dragging and partisanship. I 
implore the other side of the aisle to be calm, to be rational, and to 
be deliberate as we debate the very important issues confronting the

[[Page 369]]

American people. But if we are going to start with these types of one 
minutes of accusation, innuendo and character assassination, then I 
think the year will start off just as it ended last year, with acrimony 
and bitterness.
  Let us start for the American people a better way on this floor by 
proving we can legislate and not sit here and constantly belittle the 
other side of the aisle.

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