Gilbert Gutknecht

If our economic growth rate remains even close to the level it is at, in fact, it could drop dramatically from what the economic growth rate has been for the last year, we will balance the budget on our current path not in the year 2002…

For 40 years the answer to poverty and welfare in this country was to build bigger bureaucracies, to take more money away from working families and redistribute it through a complicated welfare system that was created and run here in…

it is not just the markets, it is consumer confidence. I think there was a report out yesterday that consumer confidence is about at a record all-time high. The American people in Washington for the first time say what they mean, mean what…

I think in the book of Ecclesiastes it talks about there is a time for everything, a time for war and a time for peace. In politics there is a time for confrontation. There are clearly some times when you have to draw a line in the sand…

I think it is a wonderful day for our children, because through this week we have passed for the first time in a generation a balanced budget plan that will in fact balance the people's books. We have also passed the first tax relief in 16…

I realized what a beautiful country this is, full of hardworking people, as the President says, who play by the rules, who pay their taxes, lots of good Americans. ... It is about preserving the American dream for those kids and it is…

In closing I would just like to thank the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Weldon] for joining me tonight, but I also want to say that this is an important first step. This is not the end of the road, this is an important step. But it is about…

And if I could, the real tragedy, it seems to me, is that in many respects well intentioned government programs have made the breakdown of the family even worse, and again I think the American people are way out in front of us on this. I…

I was just going to say that I was smiling because when my colleague was talking, it reminded me of talking about taxes and spending and balancing the budget and what we need to do in terms of tax relief. There is a farmer I was talking…

I think we came here understanding that we had a special place in history and we had a special responsibility. As baby boomers, I look at this and I look at welfare reform, I look at Medicare reform and saving Social Security and balancing…

Mr. Speaker, it is my observation that for 40 years Washington had it wrong. For 40 years Congress thought that Washington knew best, that big bureaucracies could solve social problems. And so for 40 years, spending increased at double the…

I think there is another point that needs to be made. We are working on a chart in my office that demonstrates what a big part of the problem has been. The history has been for about a 20-year period for every dollar that Congress would…

I would echo virtually everything that my colleague from Minnesota has just said. I would add that we have had meetings this morning both with the Speaker of the House as well as the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, and we have…

we heard a lot about it in the last campaign about these draconian cuts. The truth of matter is, we have made some reductions. We eliminated 279 programs here. We replaced the welfare state with the opportunity society. We have had…

I rise today to recognize a high school senior in my district in Minnesota for simply telling the truth, even when it hurt. Recently the Elgin-Millville Watchmen provided the Dover-Eyota Eagles in a sectional tournament baseball game. In…

I think that is the spirit of America. We went there and we saw what was happening. And actually, as a result of that visit, there are special provisions in this disaster relief bill that, as far as I know, have never been done; and I…

Our scientific explorations must be guided by our commitment to human values, to the good of society, to our basic sense of right and wrong. Nothing makes the necessity of that moral obligation more clear than the troubling possibility…

I rise out of frustration today about what is happening with the flood relief money for northwestern Minnesota and the Dakotas. But I am mostly frustrated with some of the rhetoric, and I am very disappointed with the some of my colleagues…

I think all of us in business know that good news does not necessarily make news and bad news is always on the front page. But I think there is some good news, especially with respect to the budget, and the interesting thing is not only do…

I must say, I get a little irritated when the folks on the other side resort to the only card in their deck: class envy. Yes, America, the land of class envy. In the liberal vision, America is not a land of unlimited opportunity, a land…

next week we celebrate Memorial Day. I rise to commend the residents of Faribault, MN, for their traditional observance of this most sacred holiday. The first observance of Memorial Day by the residents of Faribault, MN, was on May 30…

Mr. Chairman, in his immortal poem, ``The People, Yes,'' Carl Sandberg said essentially, ``The will of the people will prevail.'' For many years, and I remember when I was in the State legislature, we would send petitions to the Congress…

what if Americans were to ask this question: ``What are the politicians in Washington up to these days?'' If you were to say, ``Oh, they are doing exactly what we told them to do, balancing the budget, cutting our taxes, putting our fiscal…

We won the cold war. The military buildup of the 1980's was perhaps, in my opinion, one of the greatest investments in the history of human beings because we literally won the Third World War, the cold war, if you will, without firing a…

Unfortunately, we all know what it is going to say. It is going to say that bankruptcy is closing in. That is the bad news. For 2 years now Medicare part A, the trust fund, has been spending more than it takes in. Medicare is living beyond…