Martin Hoke: “Let us review the bidding on what we have done and where we are at with this Contract. On the first day of Congress--I…”

“Let us review the bidding on what we have done and where we are at with this Contract. On the first day of Congress--I want to review the bidding with respect to the notion that somehow this is the Republican Contract With America, because the truth is that this is not. This is an American Contract, and every single thing that we have done on this floor has gotten bipartisan support. Let us review, on the very first day of the Congress, every single vote to reform the rules of the House received Democrat support, sometimes by as many as 203 Democrats, practically their entire caucus. When we passed the congressional accountability law, a total of 171 Democrats supported our bill, 171 out of about 200 Democrats supported the bill. When we passed the Balanced Budget Amendment, 72 Democrats broke with their leadership to do the right thing. When we passed the unfunded mandates bill, another 130 Democrats sided with Republicans to give the American people what they wanted.”