David Thomas: “I was glad the leader spoke about optimism and the opportunity to do things. I want to talk just a little bit, if I may…”

“I was glad the leader spoke about optimism and the opportunity to do things. I want to talk just a little bit, if I may, in morning business about this past year and the successes of this past year. It seems to me that we have worked very hard. We have worked very long. We had to do a number of things to respond to the voters in 1994 who said the Federal Government is too big and it costs too much. Anyone who thinks that making that change from where we have been is easy is a bit naive. So I think the Republican majority in this Congress has had great success. We restructured the debate in this country and have a whole new approach changing the direction of Congress and, frankly, changing the direction of the President. After 30 years of basically dealing with the Great Society and what this group has done time after time, which is talk about how much more we can spend, there has been no balanced budget for that whole time, but simply a rush to spend more and increase taxation. We have turned that around this year. We changed the debate from where it has been for a very long time. As to the continuing resolution, the President is probably going to sign it. They say this President is responsible. The Congress is responsible for spending, and it is our responsibility. We are the trustees that have that to do. I am, frankly, very proud of what we have done this year. For the first time, we presented a balanced budget to the President. Unfortunately, he vetoed it.”