[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13967]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                ACCUSATIONS OF A ``DO NOTHING CONGRESS''

  (Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, many of our friends in the 
Democrat party have been spending a lot of time lately accusing this of 
being a do nothing Congress, and I guess coming from a Democrat that is 
a tremendous compliment.
  Do you know what it means when they accuse us of doing nothing? It 
means we are not raising taxes, that means we are not spending enough 
of the surplus. We have not raided the Social Security surplus. We are 
not making government regulations burdensome enough.
  Mr. Speaker, I say to my friends I consider the definition of ``doing 
nothing'' as a badge of honor. And do you know why? Because my Democrat 
friends and the Vice President have a funny definition of 
accomplishments.
  They do not consider it an accomplishment to end the unfair penalty 
on married couples. They do not consider it an accomplishment to end 
the earnings limit for working seniors. They do not consider it an 
accomplishment to say that the Federal Government or the IRS should not 
take half your farm when you die, half of your business when you die.
  They do not consider it an accomplishment to make prescription drugs 
available and affordable to our senior citizens in the country. This is 
what we have done over the last several months.
  Democrats may not consider these things to be accomplishments, but 
millions of Americans who work every day, get up, they pay their taxes.

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