Newt Gingrich: “let me say that I think that this is in some ways as historic a vote as the votes of the last three or four years. It…”

“let me say that I think that this is in some ways as historic a vote as the votes of the last three or four years. It did not start out this way this year. We had a budget agreement that was going to last for five years. I commend the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt) who helped with that last year. It was an historic bipartisan agreement. But then Washington just could not allow things to go on in a normal implementation. The President, for good and legitimate reasons, sent up a budget that had much higher spending. It had higher taxes. We just voted a while ago and this entire House, I believe unanimously with the exception of one Member, voted against all the tax increases the President sent up. But it was clear to us, and I want to commend the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Kasich), because he from a very early point sensed what was happening. The pressures in this city for more spending, for higher taxes, the pressures in this city to avoid reforming the system, the pressures to say the bureaucracy is perfect, we cannot find any money, we cannot change anything, just give us more of the American people's money, let us have more power in Washington, those pressures were building. I am told that today, and I do not know if they have done it, but I am told that today the Federal Communications Commission may vote a tax, something which in all of American history has never occurred.”