Cass Ballenger

there are actually some Democrats who are outraged that those who pay no Federal income tax will not benefit from the tax credits that are contained in the Republican tax cut plan. Let us think about this for a minute. If one pays no…

America deserves a raise.'' That is a slogan I quite agree with. I have a proposal that will give millions of taxpayers exactly that. It is called tax cuts. This is a method that probably has never occurred to those who coined the slogan…

what do we call a tax cut for people who do not pay taxes? I call it welfare. And once again, the Democrats want more welfare spending instead of tax cuts for working Americans. It has been 16 years since working Americans got their taxes…

during the 104th Congress, after the conflict over the Balanced Budget Act of 1995, the President came down to this very Chamber to plead, to beg, that we never, never, ever shut down the Government again. Well, apparently there has been…

consider for a moment a rich person. A rich person has two basic choices as to what he can do with his money, he can save it or he can spend it. Now suppose that he has $100,000 of income that he is completely free to dispose of as he…

although I plan to vote for House Concurrent Resolution 84, which contains the balanced budget agreement of 1997, I want to express a few concerns with it and the other budget options. I believe the major short comings in the budget which…

I am here to express a concern which our Democrat friends mentioned earlier on the condition of the public schools today. A recent "Prime Time Live" segment by Diane Sawyer documented the deteriorating buildings and inadequate structures…

Suppose all the money they could save went into buying computers. This is capital outlay, the same deal. In other words, the money that they have to spend on higher construction costs could go into computers, all kinds of equipment that…

The saddest thing of all is the only people that will have to use this are the poorest school districts in the country. In other words, they do not have the taxing power to back up the bond issues they could sell, so they are going to have…

An inspector general's report has blown this whistle on the Davis-Bacon Act, and that 1931 law by which the Labor Department drives up the cost of federally subsidized construction by requiring what are in effect union wages. A Federal…

Well, the truth of the matter is you know as well as I do that if you add this additional labor cost--I mean suppose the President is going to guarantee your interest rate on your bonds that you have. North Carolina sold a billion, $200…

Let me give another one. The case showed that 7 asphalt machines, extremely large machines, as big as trucks, were used to pave a parking lot for an Internal Revenue Service building in Oklahoma. Workers supposedly were paid $15 an hour…

Strangely enough, we had heard that there were strange things going on in Oklahoma. Luckily for us, the Secretary of Labor out there had investigated the actual operation of the Davis-Bacon law as far as Oklahoma was concerned.

For instance, a wage survey submitted to the Department of Labor, this is in Oklahoma, showed a $20 million renovation occurred at the University of Oklahoma football stadium involving 28 workers. In reality no work was done on the…

the American people are best served by open competition, whether for goods, services, or for construction. This has always led to lower costs, higher quality, innovation, and efficiency. The Executive order of President Clinton that he has…

today, Speaker Gingrich is doing the right thing. The reimbursement that he is paying is not a fine. The committee itself makes it clear that the reimbursement of legal expenses are for costs only. The Committee on Standards of Official…

The gentleman is correct. Whether the agreement to accept comp time is negotiated by the union or by the individual employee, the use of comp time belongs to the employee who earned it. Neither the employer nor the union may require an…

This is a simple bill. It will allow private sector employers and employees, where there is agreement, to have the option of using comp time or paid time off in lieu of overtime pay. It is designed to give hourly employees the opportunity…

if I may again say, this has nothing to do with changing the 40-hour work week. I do not know where they are coming from. We have had three hearings on this bill. Every employee that testified, testified in favor of the bill. We had no…

I would like to say that let me first of all say taking comp time does not affect your pension. Now let me say we had several employees that testified before our committee, and I would like for people to hear what they said. This is from…

employees want more flexibility and choice in their work schedules. Unfortunately, there is a provision in the Federal law which prevents employers from being able to provide their employees with flexibility in one area: giving them the…

2 years ago I signed the Contract With America. I am as proud of that decision today as I was then. I have been blessed and honored to have been part of history; to be part of a movement dedicated to a brighter and a more hope-filled…

here it is, the Washington Times headline for today: ``White House Buries Critical Drug Report.'' Mr. Speaker, let me quote the story. The Clinton administration, which has cut drug interdiction efforts by nearly $630 million since 1992…

last month, Newsweek magazine ran a story on the politics of the war on drugs. Here is a quote from the article: ``Although cocaine is still a major problem and heroin is getting worse, it is simply beyond argument that Bill Clinton has…

late last week the Boston Globe ran the following article--``Four more years? Here are 40 reasons to say ``no.'' I'd like to share their more amusing reasons to vote against Clinton. His ``Cabinet that looks like America'' contained 14…