Charlie Bass

Mr. BASS

Mr. BASS. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of House Resolution 450. Sixty-five thousand pages--actually 64,914 pages--in 1994 alone. Who reads all these pages? Who is affected by all these pages? Who is writing all this staff? The answer is there are a lot of people writing a lot of regulations. Nobody has the opportunity really to understand what is going on. We need a rest. Mr. Chairman, that is what House Resolution 450 does. It gives us a rest for a little while. We have got to get on the stick here and reduce the size and influence of the Federal Government. Who is going to be affected by all these regulations and the moratorium that we will have over the next year? My colleagues, it will be families, small business people, people who are affected day in and day out by these regulations. I do not know what all these people are going to do who write all these regulations. They will probably be listening to classical music for the rest of the year, but it is time we pass this bill, House Resolution 450.

Mr. BASS

Mr. BASS. Mr. Speaker, today is George Washington's birthday and that is certainly an important event, but it is also the annual meeting of the Amoskeag Veterans. The Amoskeag Veterans is perhaps New Hampshire's oldest standing militia, maybe one of the oldest in the country. The Amoskeag Veterans meet twice a year, on George Washington's birthday and on Bunker Hill Day. They are indeed a regiment of 72 American citizens who are battle- ready. As we discuss the defense supplemental today, I hope the people of this country and my colleagues here in Congress will be advised that this group has been around for over 200 years. It services, but they are ready to defend New Hampshire and this country.

Mr. BASS

Mr. BASS. Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Budget Committee and as a former member of the New Hampshire State senate, I know what it is like to balance budgets in good and also in hard times. That is why we passed a balanced budget amendment and sent it on to the Senate. That is why we passed an unfunded Federal mandate bill despite the dilatory tactics of a small minority of Members of this House. And that is why we will pass a line-item veto for the President. Mr. Speaker, Orange County may be bankrupt, but so is the Federal Government, and it is time that we move to complete the third leg of the stool of accountability of Congress and to move to give the President the line-item veto so that each and every line of our budget is subject to justification in this House. So let us get on with it and pass the line-item veto on Monday.

Mr. BASS

Mr. BASS. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the Barton amendment. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the balanced budget amendment with the three-fifths tax limitation. And I do so as a freshman Member of this body. I have only been here for 3 weeks and I don't know all the tricks of the trade and what all the Washington insiders say and think. But I do know what the people of New Hampshire say and think. They say they want a balanced budget, not more debt for their kids. They say they want smaller Government, not more Federal mandates in their lives. They say they want less Federal spending to balance this budget, not more taxes for them to pay. That is what the November election was about and that is what this amendment is about. The three-fifths limitation not only ensures a balanced budget, but helps ensure that it is done through a shrinking of Government and not a growth in taxes. That is what the people want and that is what this amendment delivers.

Mr. BASS

Mr. BASS. Mr. Speaker, I had planned to address the House today to talk about the fact that I cannot support a bailout of Mexico, that we have got to treat our neighbors to the south in the same way that we would treat our neighbors down the street. But I have been sitting here for the last 25 minutes listening to this discussion about Social Security. This is the same discussion that we have heard year after year after year, most usually in an election cycle before a general election, when Republicans are accused of trying to cut Social Security. But has it happened? No, it never will, not in recent history, and the fact is that the only time that Social Security has been affected was when the Social Security taxable income was increased from 50 percent to 85 percent, and that was a proposal that was backed by the then majority, the Democrats. So let us get the record straight here. Let us pass a balanced budget amendment today and send it on to the Senate.

Mr. BASS

Mr. BASS. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from California for yielding me this time. Mr. Chairman, 10 years ago this year the New Hampshire Constitutional Convention passed a resolution which, in effect, prohibited unfunded State mandates. The people of New Hampshire approved that resolution in the fall of 1984. It reads as follows, ``The State shall not mandate or assign any new, expanded or modified programs or responsibilities to any political subdivision in such a way as to necessitate additional local expenditures by the political subdivision unless such programs or responsibilities are fully funded by the State or unless such programs or responsibilities are approved for funding by a vote of the local legislative body or political subdivision.'' Mr. Chairman, what this resolution did was to impose for the first time in New Hampshire history real discipline on the legislature. It is high time that we impose that type of discipline here in Congress. I urge support for H.R. 5.