Spencer Cox: “I will never forget the night on this floor, not so long ago, in 1996, when in this very Chamber President Clinton said…”

“I will never forget the night on this floor, not so long ago, in 1996, when in this very Chamber President Clinton said right on the heels of his attempt to have the Federal Government take over responsibility for one-sixth of the Nation's economy, ``the era of big government is over.'' That line recalled similar sentiments by such earlier conservative Presidents as Ronald Reagan, Calvin Coolidge and Abraham Lincoln, with the difference being that the latter three actually meant it. How many of you remember not just Clinton's favorite line but the entire passage in proper context? It went as follows: ``We know big government does not have all the answers. We know there is not a program for every problem. We have worked to give the American people a smaller, less bureaucratic government in Washington, and we have to give the American people one that lives within its means. The era of big government is over.'' I remember that moment vividly.”