Karen Bass: “I will conclude my observations about where we stand today by making an observation about the debate that occurred…”

“I will conclude my observations about where we stand today by making an observation about the debate that occurred recently in my home State of New Hampshire between the two candidates running for the nomination for president on the Democratic side. They were both trying to outliberal each other. It was interesting to me to see how, when Mr. Gore accused Mr. Bradley of having a health care plan that would use up the entire surplus, the entire surplus, he was also talking about it using up the entire social security surplus, too. Vice President Gore expressed sadness that Mr. Bradley, Senator Bradley's health care proposal would not leave money for him to propose other new spending initiatives. So Mr. Speaker, I think this debate that we are having this year is a healthy debate. The differences between the Republicans and the Democrats are clear, concise, and understandable. I know that they are committed to their ideals, but when we came to power in Congress in 1995, we set, as our goals, goals that would not necessarily be satisfying every interest group at home, goals that would not be spending more money without any accountability.”