JOHN LINDER: “I think, first of all, it is important to set the differences in how we got here. There has been one difference in the…”

“I think, first of all, it is important to set the differences in how we got here. There has been one difference in the two parties since the day I got here, which was in 1993, and the gentleman from California (Mr. Horn) joined us at that time, and that is the Democrats want more spending and the Republicans want less spending. Indeed, that was the debate supposedly that shut the government down in 1995 and 1996. The President said we are not spending enough money on Medicare, Medicaid, the environment and education. Indeed, we were not that far apart. We projected increasing spending by 3 percent, and he wanted 4 percent. We projected an increase in revenues of 5 percent; the President projected 5½. We projected increasing Medicare spending over 7 years by 62 percent; the President said 64 percent. We broke down in the second part of this debate, the part that is not spoken so loudly about, values. We wanted the American people to make the choices. We believed their giving Medicare recipients more choices, they would shop their care and bring down costs that entrusts the American people to decide. Indeed, Mrs. Clinton said in public during the debate on health care we cannot trust the American people to make these decisions. In 1994 with a Republican majority for the first time in 40 years, we did something about spending. We eliminated in that first budget about 300 spending programs, and we had a huge fight with the President.”