Gilbert Gutknecht: “What a difference 4 years has made. If we look back just 4 years ago, this Congress, under the leadership of the other…”

“What a difference 4 years has made. If we look back just 4 years ago, this Congress, under the leadership of the other team, was debating the largest tax increase in American history. They were attempting to dismantle the greatest health care system the world has ever known. Welfare reform was being ignored, and the Medicare trust fund was moving toward bankruptcy and was being ignored as well. The Congressional Budget Office was predicting $200 billion deficits for as far as the eye could see. What a difference 4 years has made. Now, we have actually reformed the welfare system, and as a net result, there are 1.3 million American families who were on the welfare rolls who are now on payrolls. I have often said that the real benefit of the welfare reform system that we passed in this Congress 2 years ago was not that it will save money, but it will save people, it will save families, and it will save children from one more generation of dependency and despair. What a difference 4 years has made. We now have agricultural reform so that farmers are starting to farm for the market rather than for the Government. What a difference 4 years has made as it relates to taxes and spending.”