James A. Leach: “let me respond in context, one is the context of restraint, the second is in the context of housing. In the context of…”

“let me respond in context, one is the context of restraint, the second is in the context of housing. In the context of restraint, this committee has brought forth the administration's proposal. This side is marching in what might be considered surprising lockstep with the administration; the Democrat side is not. The second point I would like to make that I think is very important, housing is a large issue, public housing is a subset issue. It is the belief philosophically of the Republican side that if we can constrain spending, reduce interest rates, we can expand housing in America. That is occurring. A higher percentage of Americans each year now are coming to own their own homes, putting a lower burden on the public side. Now, we can take every single subset of Federal programs and make a case for increasing them. When we do that, the sum total of effect is an economy that dwindles. We on the Republican side are very conscious of the macroeconomic dimension of the need to restrain. Based on that, of all programs in America where the benefits become most clear-cut, it is housing. Homeownership in this country as a percentage is going up, and we are committed to continue to have that go up.”