The Public Record
I am not sure I can explain baseline budgeting. Essentially, I think the way it works is that the budget automatically goes up by about 6 percent. Anything you reduce from that is called a cut around Washington. Everywhere else, in every…
The reason that we have heard the harsh rhetoric that we have had for the last 3 or 4 months is not I think that some people fear that this reform plan is going to fail, I think they are afraid it is going to work, and that seniors are…
I am telling you this technology was developed in 1955. That is what you are going to fly home on. The telephone companies route millions of calls using computers, and they do it without even thinking about it. Yet we are using vacuum…
Many of the Members of our freshman class are baby boomers, and I think we do come here with a special responsibility. Both of my parents are on Medicare, and we have a special responsibility to our kids. The debate about Medicare and the…
I do not remember the exact number, Chairman McIntosh, of hours of hearings we have had about this issue, but there are several things that surprise me, and frankly just shock me, in the testimony we have heard. First of all, there are, in…
I think we do want to have a little discussion about Medicare, because there is still so much distortion going on out there about what really is going to happen with Medicare.
It goes deeper than that. It is not just choice. It is about markets and it is about competition. We saw this, and part of the reason the Soviet Union ultimately collapsed, and the Wall Street Journal ran such a beautiful editorial shortly…
I thank everyone for participating. We are making huge differences. It started with the Shays act on the first night. We are going to balance the budget, we are going to save Medicare. We are going to change welfare as we know it. We are…
I would like to also interject that the whole issue of Medicare, people who think that we have not had enough public hearings or discussions, in my own case I have had 33 town meetings. At every one of those town meetings we have talked…
Not in the United States. We have to buy them from Czechoslovakia. You have probably seen the Speaker carries around one of those vacuum tubes that the FAA buys.
I think this speaks to it all. One of our colleagues in the other body recently said, you know, some of the cynics and the critics here in Washington are saying that this is a debate about how much we are going to spend on children and how…
Isn't that really the story of America? The naysayers and the pessimists and the cynics have never prevailed. In the long run, it is the optimists, the believers, the ones who really get out, roll up their sleeves and get it done. I know…
I must tell you I am proud to be a Member of this Congress, the 104th Congress, and even more proud to be a part of this freshman class. I hear that it was an excellent hearing, that the testimony was excellent. The other thing that I…
I think we came to Washington to make a difference and I think the American people said last November that the status quo was not acceptable and they wanted some real changes. One of the bills we worked on today and worked through the…
I would like to read from Bill Bennett's Book of Virtues a poem entitled ``The Bridge Builders'' by Will Allen Dromgoole. The poem speaks of generational equity. An old man, going a lone highway, Came, at evening, cold and gray, To a…
July 9th. The average American will work this year until July 9th to pay all of the costs of government.
The average American will work 190 days this year to pay his or her share of government. That is 13 days to pay interest on the national debt, 15 days to pay for national defense, 29 days to pay for Social Security and Medicare, 36 days to…
The status quo doesn't live here anymore. And hopefully we have come to a new world here in Washington. And there is going to be no turning back. In fact, the Vikings when they would invade the foreign country, they would burn their ships…
The good news about this freshman class, and we are happy to have the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Kingston] as an honorary member, is we are staying on offense, whether we are talking about campaign finance reform, lockbox reform, budget…
It is amazing. I am just amazed, and I would like to see their voucher plan expanded to nonpublic, private, religious-related schools. That is not going to be the case, at least for the first phase of this. But as I said, back in the…
It really has been an exciting and historic time to be here in Washington. And I think it is important. As I flew home for the 4th of July recess, I said to myself, how lucky we are to be a part of this important point in history. And more…
the Medicare system is at a crossroads. The Medicare Board of Trustees have said, and I quote from page 3 of their report, ``* * * The fund is projected to be exhausted in 2001 * * *.'' That leaves this country with two options. We can…
As we adjourn today and Members begin to return to their districts to celebrate the Fourth of July, I think we should remember what we are really celebrating is Independence Day. There were two events, two news items this week coming out…
earlier this year this House passed a responsible bill that provided emergency funds for those who were affected by disasters throughout the country. Just like ordinary Americans we cut spending elsewhere to offset these new expenses. But…
I am a firm believer that actions have consequences. By the same token, doing nothing can have consequences as well. If Congress does nothing about Medicare or the budget, I doubt America could survive the consequences. The actions of…
Politicians like Gilbert Gutknecht
