Rod Grams: “in November 1994, the American voters sent a clear message to Washington that resulted in a watershed election and the…”

“in November 1994, the American voters sent a clear message to Washington that resulted in a watershed election and the first Republican Congress in 40 years. That message was to enact a taxpayers' agenda of balancing the budget, limiting the size and scope of Government, and returning tax dollars and power to the taxpayers. Two years ago today, the House of Representatives was marking day 76 of its unprecedented 100-day effort to carry out the taxpayers' agenda reflected in the Contract With America. They kept their promise to the American people by bringing all 10 provisions of the contract up for a vote and passing almost all of them. In 1996, despite an unprecedented assault by the media, hostile special interest groups, and the big tax and spenders in Washington, the Republican majorities in Congress were preserved, indeed, even increased here in the Senate. The voters once again sent the message that they wanted the taxpayers' agenda enacted, but they wanted Congress and the President to come together in completing the work started in the 104th Congress. Yet somehow this message has been misinterpreted by a number of my Republican colleagues, who seem to have come away from the 1996 elections with the mistaken notion that the effort to pass the taxpayers' agenda should be stalled or delayed. What concerns me most is that some of the loudest calls for retreating from that agenda are coming from within our own party leadership.”