Gilbert Gutknecht: “Obviously, we would certainly like to take some credit for what has happened since 1995. But the truth of the matter is…”

“Obviously, we would certainly like to take some credit for what has happened since 1995. But the truth of the matter is, what the American people finally said was, enough is enough. I mean, higher taxes were the answer to every one of our problems, and the American people understood that higher taxes were not the problem. They certainly were not the solution. The problem was too much spending. I remember when the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn) and I came as freshmen and we looked at what the President proposed, and this is not according to the House Republican Conference, this is according to the Congressional Budget Office. We should have this on a bigger chart, but I think the chart, if people at home or in their offices can see this, can recognize that what was happening was the deficit was bad, but worse, it was going to get worse every single year, and we were looking at potential deficits by the year 2009. The Congressional Budget Office came out shortly after we came to Washington in 1995, and the American people said, enough is enough, and they sent 73 new Republican freshmen, including the two of us, to Congress.”