Jack Kingston

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I want to join my colleagues in thanking the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. LaHood] and the gentleman from Colorado [Mr. Skaggs] for bringing us all together, over 220 Members, together for a bipartisan retreat. In that retreat we all acknowledged we are going to have conservative, liberal, urban, rural differences for whatever philosophical reasons, but that we should try to eliminate the obstacles to civility as much as possible. One of the things my group recommended, for example, is before we give our speeches ask ourselves these questions: Is the speech fair, is it accurate, is it true? If it was the last speech you were going to give, is this the one you want to be remembered by? If your mama was sitting in the gallery, would you still give this speech? Mr. Speaker, I think if we go through these batteries of questions and just ask ourselves to reach for a higher level, then I think it might not be necessarily easier for Republicans to kiss a Democrat or for a Democrat to kiss a Republican, but it will be easier for us all to give each other a Hershey's kiss.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, in response to the malicious burning of the Gay's Hill Baptist Church in Millen, GA, the American Jewish Committee presented a donation of more than $87,000 to the church's congregants for reconstruction on December 15, 1996. The remarks that David A. Harris, the executive director of the American Jewish Committee, gave at the presentation were especially inspirational and carried the message of racial healing. Mr. Harris' apt remarks follow: Gay's Hill Baptist Church Groundbreaking Ceremony (By David A. Harris, Executive Director, American Jewish Committee) Reverend Baldwin, Ladies and Gentlemen, Brothers and Sisters, Perhaps they're out there right now, maybe hiding behind that tree, or over in that field, or behind that car. I'm speaking of those who would commit such an act as burning a church. Maybe they're out there right now, watching us. I hope so. Perhaps they thought they had found an isolated church to burn down, a church no one would notice, much less care about. They were wrong. This church is now at the center of the universe. It might as well be located in the middle of Times Square in New York, or between the White House and the U.S. Congress in Washington. Perhaps they thought only Baptists would care. They were wrong. It's not just Baptists who care. It's all caring people who care. And if this was an assault against Baptists, then all of us--of many religions--are today Baptists. Perhaps they thought only African Americans would care. They were wrong. It's not just African Americans who care. It's all caring people who care. And if this was an assault against African Americans, then all of us--of many races--are today African Americans. Perhaps they thought only Christians would care. They were wrong. It's not just Christians who care. It's all caring people who care. And if this was an assault against Christians, then all of us--of many faiths--are today Christians. Perhaps they thought their hate would prevail. They were wrong. Our love will. Our bonds--across race, religion, geography--will prevail. As we stand here today, hand in hand, arm in arm, shoulder to shoulder, we know that to be true. Perhaps they thought destruction would prevail. They were wrong. Construction will prevail. We are builders, not destroyers. The rebuilding of this church is but one example. Perhaps they thought an exclusive view of America would prevail. They were wrong. An inclusive vision of America--of all its people and their rich diversity--will prevail. We reaffirm that vision today, as we must every day. An America where we will learn to live together as brothers and sisters, else we die together as fools, as the late Reverend King so poignantly stated. Ladies and Gentlemen, Brothers and Sisters, When we at the American Jewish Committee learned about the spate of church burnings, we wanted to extend a helping hand--not just in words, words can be quite cheap, but in deeds. We wanted to rise up as part of the community of conscience and stand with those in pain and in need. We wanted to do something tangible. For many of us, the sight of church burnings was all too familiar. Near and far, we have witnessed many of our synagogues, far too many, go down in ashes--targets of hate. We have experienced the sense of fear, of vulnerability, of anger, and of isolation that comes with such tragedies. And we know what can happen when we are alone. Yes, we know. For too long, we were alone, as you have been alone. But no more. Enough. Many good people are waking up and want to be counted. You are not alone. We are not alone. Just this past week, for example, Jews around the world were celebrating the holiday of Chanukah, the eight days marking the first recorded struggle for religious freedom, the freedom to be different. A Jewish family outside Philadelphia experienced a frightening event. During the night, someone came, broke a window and destroyed the candelabra, the menorah as we call it, shining bright in their window. But what happened next? By the end of that day, virtually every home in the immediate neighborhood, Christian and Jewish, had placed a menorah in their front window. And something very similar happened in Billings, Montana three years earlier when thousands of Christian homes placed menorahs in their windows after a similar attack. That's true faith, that's genuine kindness, that's real brotherly and sisterly love. No, none of us should be alone. None of us should ever again experience the fear of isolation. And none of us should ever again remain quiet or inactive at such moments. That would be akin to acquiescence, to defeat. And that's why we wanted to help, to stand up and be counted, to affirm that we are all God's children, all created in the Divine image. In doing so, we were motivated by the words of Samuel: ``The Lord declares to you that He, the Lord, will build a house for you . . . He shall build a house for God's name . . . Be pleased, therefore, to bless your servant's house, that it may abide before You forever; for You, O Lord God, have spoken. May your servant's house be blessed forever by Your blessing.'' Joining me here today are a number of American Jewish Committee colleagues whom I'd like to ask to join me now. From Atlanta: Lois Frank, Steve Kleber, Sherry Frank and Sunny Stern. From Philadelphia: Lisa Weinberger and Eric Kantor. And though technically not a colleague, I'd also like to ask my 17-year-old son, Danny, to come up. I asked Danny if he would come with me from New York because I wanted him to experience this day for himself and hopefully to draw strength and inspiration from it. Reverend Baldwin, my colleagues and I at the American Jewish Committee said we wanted to do something tangible. As you know, we and the whole family of the American Jewish Committee undertook a fund raising effort to help you and your congregation rebuild the Gay's Hill Baptist Church. I am pleased today to be able to give you these checks totalling more than $87,000 that resulted from the effort. And now, may I ask you all--Christian and Jew, black and white, we who seek to build, not destroy; to love, not hate; to heal, not wound--to join hands for a moment of prayer. ``Our God and God of all Generations, We rejoice at the gift of friendship and fellowship that is ours this day. We ask Your blessing upon those who lead and serve this Congregation. Bless them in their endeavors to build a new House of Prayer. Give special strength, wisdom and courage to those who will labor to build this new House. Be with them in the days and months ahead. And may they achieve the goal we all seek, the gift we Jews call Shalom, the gift of peace. And let us say, Amen.''

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, when no one else was able to help, U.S. Coast Guard helicopter 6573, based at the USCG Air Station in Savannah, GA, swung into action to carry a 3-year-old burn victim from Statesboro, GA to much-needed treatment in Savannah, GA. The air station staff's heroic actions are detailed in the following letter from Bulloch Co. EMS/Rescue Director Lee Eckles: Bulloch County EMS/Rescue, Statesboro, GA, September 27, 1996. Adm. Robert E. Kramek, Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard, Washington, DC. Dear Admiral Kramek: I realize how busy you must be, but when it comes to expressing ones thanks for saving the life of a child, I felt like you just might have a few minutes to read this letter. On September 25, 1996, our department was dispatched to respond to a ``burn patient'' some ten (10) miles away from our station. With no other information available, we responded. Arriving at the scene, our staff found a three year old female with second and third degree burns covering over seventy percent of her body. Within twenty-five minutes of our dispatch time, the child was receiving primary care treatment at our local hospital. It was clear from first observations that this three year old would need the specialized care of the ``Burn Center'' ninety miles to our west, in order to have any chance of survival. Due to the extent and severity of the burns, and the fact that she had suffered extensive airway burns, transport time to the burn center would have a significant impact on her survival. Air transport was the only option. The regional Trauma Center in Savannah, fifty miles to our east has the only civilian medivac helicopter available in all of South Georgia. Upon making the request, I was notified that their helicopter was out of service for maintenance. They did however, quickly refer us to the military M.A.S.T. helicopter unit at Fort Stewart. As I dialed the phone, I remembered from my military tour of duty with the Coast Guard, (1978-1981), the bureaucratic process that would have to be overcome in order for a military aircraft to be approved for use on a civilian medivac mission. The desk sergeant quickly transferred my call to the duty officer. My first comment to the Major was to apologize for my sense of urgency, but a child's life was on the line. Simply stated, I ask if his M.A.S.T. Helicopter could be airborne in five minutes or less for a medivac flight. His response was brief and very direct. ``It will take me at least thirty minutes to find someone who is capable of giving authorization.'' I thanked him for his time, and hung up the phone. I realized at that point we were out of options. One of my staff members, feeling helpless said ``why don't you call the Coast Guard, I know they have a helicopter.'' With nothing but the cost of a phone call to lose, I called the Coast Guard Air Station in Savannah Georgia. Once again, I explained the urgency of my request. This time, however, the response was different. Within five minutes, USCG 6573 was airborne and enroute to the Statesboro Municipal Airport. To make a long story short, the Coast Guard answered the call for help when no one else was available. The medivac mission was carried out without a hitch. Our every request was quickly accommodated. Everyone involved, from the pilots and air crew to the individuals operating the telephone played an extremely crucial role in the critical care transport of Stacie Martin. At this point in time, I am not certain about Stacie's outcome because of the extent and severity of her injuries. One thing that I certainly know, is the role played by All Coast Guard Personnel involved will be credited with every positive milestone that Stacie overcomes on her long road to recovery. For four years, stationed at USCG GROUP CHARLESTON, being a SAR small boat coxswain, the Coast Guard Motto, Semper Paratus, seldom took on a very significant meaning. However, on Wednesday, September 25, 1996, being ``Always ready'' had a much greater meaning than each and every day of my brief Coast Guard career. On that Wednesday, it seemed that the bureaucracy worked against Stacie, until Coast Guard assistance was requested. No bureaucracy, no delay, no excuses, simply immediate response, few questions, and extraordinary execution of duty and responsibility by all USCG personnel involved. I have always been proud of the many roles that I was involved in while a member of the Coast Guard, but never as impressed as I was on Wednesday the 25th. I realize how truly insignificant our language and my own vocabulary really is when trying to express my sincere Gratitude and Thanks to everybody at the Coast Guard Air Station in Savannah, and to the personnel at the District Office in Miami. This is truly a case of one of the most outstanding humanitarian missions ever undertaken by my former branch of service. There were probably many people who were involved whose names I did not have a chance to document, but those names I do have are as follows: Captain Clark, OSR Miami; Captain Thomas W. Sechler, OIC, Coast Guard Air Station Savannah; Lieutenant Richard Craig, Pilot; Lieutenant Thomas Gaffney, Pilot; Glenn Boggs, ADI; William (Bill) DeCamp, ASM2; Lieutenant Pat Ryan; Rob Jerger, AM3; and Mike Forchette,

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. OK, 55 percent. So if you have an estate of $3 million, when you die Uncle Sam is going to get half of it. Not your children, not your grandchildren, not your friends, not a charity, but Uncle Sam. You talk to people about that, they do not realize that, because most of us will not accumulate $3 million, unfortunately. But still, just because they have been successful, they have to have a 55 percent tax rate when they die.

Mr. KINGSTON. Would the revenue from capital gains taxes go up because there were more transactions, because people no longer hoarded their money but they went back into the marketplace and traded goods?

Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman will yield, you know what this is about, as Mr. Cox just said, this is not about protecting the assets of wealthy families so that when the oldest person or whoever dies that it can be passed on and then the rich can remain rich. This is about economic prosperity, creating an American dream that is accessible for everybody where the unemployed can get a job, get on the economic ladder and go out and share in the American dream through upward mobility. We are talking about a tax system not to protect the rich but to create opportunities for everyone so that the American dream is accessible.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I wanted to talk about three people who I know to be constituents and I have changed their names only. One is a man who worked hard all his life and had a good income, was not wealthy, he made about $40,000 a year his last couple of years. That was the peak of his income. He saved his money all his life, buying Exxon stock or IBM, the blue chip stuff in the 1960's and the 1970's. Now that stock has tripled in value and he has accumulated assets and he cannot sell it for a medical emergency or long-term care in his retirement now because of the huge capital gains tax. Another person. A widow. Lives out on Whitmarsh Island. I represent the coast of Georgia. Whitmarsh Island is a beautiful barrier island. Actually, it is not a barrier island, but it is an island. Waterfront property. The woman bought the land with her husband in the 1960's, and in the 1960's this property, which is 2 or 3 acres, was worth $25,000. Today that same piece of property is worth $500,000. Husband is dead. She is now a widow. She is on a fixed income and she has a fixed income of about $15,000 a year. If she sells the property to raise money for long-term care, she is taxed at the $500,000 tax bracket or whatever she can get for the property. Again, she would be helped by a capital gains tax relief. Another one, a young person, somebody who is about 38 years old, bought some land in a commercial-residential mix area, an area that was going commercial. It was a house. He paid $35,000 for it 10 years ago. Today that land is worth about $50,000. So he would have a gain of about $15,000. Revco came in, the drug store, and offered to buy that land from him. He did the math on it and found out that after paying the capital gains on it, he would not have made any money off it after holding it for 10 years. So he says to Revco, ``No, I don't choose to sell.'' What does Revco do? They move elsewhere. That is two or three jobs right there in his neighborhood that would have been created, that needed to be created, that could not be created because the capital gains tax said no deal. The tax system is slowing down the economy, slowing up potential for growth, and penalizing our elderly. Those are 3 real life examples that I know of.

Mr. KINGSTON. Would the gentleman yield for a question?

Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman will yield, there is also certainly class envy in this to some degree that we do have certain politicians playing on class envy because they can get reelected easier if they stir up income groups against other income groups. Nowadays it just seems to be horrible to be successful. For example, in Atlanta we have CNN. Ted Turner brought it in. If we have a capital gains tax reduction, will Ted Turner make out? Yes, he will, and I do not think it is a virtue for me to bash him for that. Is CNN good for Atlanta? Yes. Has Ted Turner brought lots and lots of jobs to Georgia? He certainly has. Has he taken lots of risk? Yes, he has. For that he has been rewarded through the accumulation of personal wealth, and I do not think because of that that I need to sit back and say, well, let us tax him more because he has been successful. I was talking to a group of people one time, I said, ``When you die, should your house be cut in half and part of it go to the Government? If you have two cars, for example, should one go to your children and the other one go to Uncle Sam?'' They said certainly not. I said, ``You realize,'' and maybe the gentleman could correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the threshold is $3 million, ``if you have an estate of $3 million, the tax rate becomes 53 percent, I believe, or thereabouts.''

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I wanted to respond to the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Saxton] the distinguished chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, regarding his comments to Mr. Pappas' comments about the tax proposal and the reduction in taxes. I am not on the Joint Economic Committee, and quite often I see their 30- and 40-page documents, and I have difficulty reading them; but I was an economics major at the University of Georgia and one of the things that we often did with economics is we delved into the theory. But it is good to just shut the book every now and then and to think about the man on the street; what it would mean to him. Throw out the theory for a second and think about what would happen if we had more money in our pockets. If we had a guy just running around, and I will call him a friend of mine, Bill Granger. Bill is a working guy. He is a friend of mine and lives in Alma, GA. I am going to change some of the names of the cities to be a little careful here. I do not have his permission. Say Bill gets a $500 per child tax credit. He has three kids, so he will have $1,500 more in his pocket. Let us say his dad does not get that, his dad gets something from Social Security earnings limitations. Whatever the case, we confiscate less money out of their wallets in Alma, GA. What that means is they would have anywhere from, I will go ridiculously low, from $50 a person to maybe as much as $1,000 a person. That means they will be able to buy more shoes, more shirts, go out to eat more often, maybe go for a longer vacation, go to Atlanta and have a big time for the weekend or something like that. When they do that, they stimulate the economy. Let us think about approximately 150 million people with $50 more in their wallet because we are confiscating less through a tax. So what happens is we have all that money out on the street; people going out to eat more, buying more toys, more clothes, shoes, and so forth. When they do that, small businesses expand because they are stimulated by the new growth, the new prosperity out there. When they do that, they create more jobs. And the more jobs that are created, the more people that can find work. All the folks on welfare now, there would be a lot more job opportunities for them. They go to work. Less people are on public assistance and more revenues coming in. Both President Kennedy and Reagan cut taxes, and when they did, actual money paid in to taxes in Washington increased. It did not decrease it. We always hear from some people how are we going to pay for the tax cut? It is not a matter of paying for the tax cut. The revenues, because of the taxes being out on the street, the revenues actually increase. So we do have this phenomenon that if we cut taxes, revenues will increase and America has more prosperity. I think it is a very basic thing that the person on the street can understand and appreciate. They do not need to have the charts and diagrams about it because they know. Give them their money and they can spend it better than we can.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, as a father of four kids, I have Betsy who is 13, John who is 11, and I have Ann who is 8 and Jim who is 6, I am very, very concerned about their future. We are working real hard with them on their homework, teaching them math and English and all the good stuff children all over America are doing, but one thing that is very scary to me as I put them to bed every night is that I know looming out there in the future is this dark cloud of the national debt: $5.1 trillion already. Now we have a President who says he will support a balanced budget amendment, and then he submits a budget that is not even balanced. The Clinton budget in the year 2002 has a $69 billion deficit, and all the savings there are are on the back end, far after he has left the White House. Mr. Speaker, I ask the President to please come forward, think about not just my kids, think about all the children in America. Let us really do something for the youth of America and balance the budget and quit spending their money.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. He is welcome to stay and talk about this next issue. I will introduce it this way. First of all, let me say, we want to talk about the IRS. The criticism is not to the employees, the criticism is to the system. Right now, that system has a Tax Code that is two volumes total and 1,378 pages. It is an IRS that has 480 tax forms, and 280 forms that tell you how to fill out the 480. In 1994, the Tax Foundation estimates that businesses spent, listen to these numbers, 3.6 billion hours and individuals spent $1.8 billion preparing their tax returns. It is too complicated. One final statistic and then I will yield to the gentleman, because it is all up to the members of the Committee on Ways and Means to get this straight. According to a study of Daniel Pilla of the Cato Institute, the IRS gives out wrong answers to more than 8 million taxpayers a year. It is too complicated. What can we do to simplify the tax system? I yield to the gentleman from Arizona [Mr. Hayworth].

Mr. KINGSTON. I want to make sure that you understand. You are talking about your child and my child, and any parent out here in America hearing this should pay attention. Children will be having to pay an 80 to 83-percent tax rate just to sustain the current level of goods and services. Now here is a summary of the Clinton budget. I hope that we can get this on camera for the folks back home, but one thing that is interesting is after the administration torpedoed the balanced budget amendment in the Senate, then they said we do not need the amendment to balance the budget. They introduced a bill that they call the balanced budget, and in a year, if the gentleman can read this, I am not sure that he can, but in the year 2002 we would have a deficit of $69 billion. So there is nothing balanced about the Clinton budget.

Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman would yield.

Mr. KINGSTON. Let us talk about 1969 for a minute. In 1969, Jimi Hendrix was probably coming out with ``Are You Experienced?'' That was his album. The Beatles, I think, were coming out with the White Album. They had just probably found Paul. There was the ``Is Paul Dead/I Am the Walrus'' debate with the Beatles. The Beatles had not broken up yet. Elvis was making his comeback. Elvis was still alive and doing fine in Graceland and all over America. Neil Armstrong was about to walk on the Moon in July 1969. Richard Nixon was in the White House and serving his first term in the White House. Nineteen sixty-nine. That is when we are talking about we had the last balanced budget. This is absurd. This is the United States of America. This is not the value system that you and I were raised with that says Congress could go on spending money, more than it brings in year after year and do what I call the kids' tax. Now, the way the kids' tax works is a real popular tax in Washington. That is when we in Congress spend more money than we are bringing in on new programs to get us reelected and we send the bill to the kids. It is the equivalent of going out to eat and having a big time on the town and on the way out the door the man says, ``Your bill comes to $78.'' You say, ``Don't worry about it. Send it to my 4-year-old 20 years from now. He'll pick up the tab.'' It is the kids' tax and that is what we have gotten comfortable with since 1969 passing on the debt to the children of America.

Mr. KINGSTON. It would be 240 miles long. Think about that. Let me yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, but what is interesting is when I talk to employers in my area and I say, what do we need to do in our education system to prepare our kids to go out and compete in the world market against Japanese, British, German children and so forth, they say, you need to have reading and math backgrounds, very strong. Federal education, of all of those 700 education programs, we have 14 reading programs, we have 39 art education programs, we have 11 mathematics programs and 27 environmental programs. Now, I think environmental and art education are very important, but if you want a job you better go in with math and reading. If we want our children to be able to compete on a global market, we have to do that. That is what you are saying, it would not cost a dime just to redirect funds, but it would produce people who are going to be better assets to the job market.

Mr. KINGSTON. That if Mr. Cunningham's jet was flying overhead at the speed of sound and spewing out a roll of dollar bills behind it, the plane would have to fly for more than 15 years before it wheeled out $1.6 trillion, and I do not think you have that much fuel in any plane. And here is another way to look at it, and this is from the Wall Street Journal 2 years ago. Newspaper tabloids say that O.J. Simpson paid about $55,000 a day in legal bills, $55,000, and actually this is for the criminal trial and not for the civil trial. The trial would last 26 million days or about 100,000 years before O.J. had spent $1.6 trillion. Let me yield to the gentleman from Arizona.

Mr. KINGSTON. Well, let me yield to the gentleman from Arizona and-- but can I jump in for 1 second? I have got some things just for the fun of it here. On a trillion dollars, just our budget right now, is $1.6 trillion, thereabouts. Now the Office of Management and Budget director had calculated a couple of years ago. Since the gentleman here is an old top gun, I want a young top gun, but it has been awhile.

Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman from Arizona will yield again, getting back to this chart a minute, as you say, here is where it is: 98 percent of the deficit reduction allegedly comes in the last 2 years. Well, that would be well beyond the current administration's service in the White House. So there is absolute hypocrisy in such a budget to call it a balanced budget. The other thing is that it actually increases the budget next year by an additional $24 billion in terms of deficit spending--another $24 billion in debt. So you have raised some good points. We have been joined by the gentleman from California [Mr. Cunningham] who has been a very active Member of the Education Committee, moved over to the Committee on Appropriations this year so he can get a little better angle at tightening the belt some, and, Mr. Cunningham, we would certainly like to yield to you and are delighted to have you with us.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, what I wanted to talk about a little bit is the budget and the budget process, the situation that we are in, because recently the Senate Democrats voted down the balanced budget amendment. All the balanced budget amendment really said is that the Congress of the United States and the President would each year pass a budget that was balanced. No mystery to it, Mr. Speaker. All it meant was whatever we bring in, that is what we spend. I would love to see us spend less than what we bring in. I would certainly settle right now to say just, ``You don't spend more than you bring in.'' But I guess the President and the Senate thought that was too controversial of a concept for us to pass a balanced budget so they voted it down and great for them. What is the situation that we are in right now? Well, for the children of America, I have got four kids and I know the Speaker has a large family, also. We are concerned about our children and their future. What will this leave for the kids? Today our national debt is $5.1 trillion. We have not had a balanced budget since 1969. If we look at that in terms of what it will mean to kids, kids who are graduating from school and going to work today will have a higher tax burden than any other graduating class in the history of the United States of America. They will have higher interest rates as a result of a budget that is not balanced, and they will have less job opportunities. Now, if we would balance the budget and pass a balanced budget, they are two different things. Passing the balanced budget amendment would ensure to the children in the future that we would not get in this huge deficit situation year after year again, and it would also say that we would have no more deficits and we would start paying down the national debt. Currently, Mr. Speaker, the interest on the national debt, I think, is at $231 billion each year. That is around $20 billion a month, give or take, because the interest rates change. I do not know what the annual budget is for the State of Colorado but I know that Colorado is a little bit smaller than the State of Georgia. The State of Georgia has a budget of about $11 billion a year. So for Georgia, we have a budget of $11 billion a year and we are paying $20 billion each month in interest on the national debt. We have obviously got to get this under control. Our children, Mr. Speaker, are paying higher interest rates and higher taxes as a result of this massive debt. I have with me the gentleman from Arizona [Mr. Hayworth] who has been a leader on the Committee on Ways and Means trying to put some sanity in our tax policies and we want to talk about the IRS and taxes in a minute, but right now let me yield to the gentleman on the balanced budget and the need for it.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, would you explain what AmeriCorps is, because I think there may be some folks who want to know what AmeriCorps is.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, it is interesting, I was talking to a private school, they had a private school in my district last week and he was telling me about a private school not in my district, but elsewhere in the country, where they were getting away from this rat race that a lot of our school systems are in in terms of buying new computers, because every year you buy new computers and because of the bureaucracy it takes a long time. So if you and I go out and buy a computer tomorrow, it is going to be obsolete. But in the school system it is even more because of all of the redtape that they have to go through. So what they say is the school system does not buy computers any more. Each child has a laptop and in their lockers are batteries where they charge their laptops for 4 hours and then they can use them during the course of the day. I strongly believe that that is the technology that we are moving toward rather than having every gizmo that comes out of IBM, and so forth. But the beauty of it is that these laptops are sponsored by businesses who want to get the kids to be computer friendly, so they underwrite it, and it does not cost the school system, or it costs them a lot less. That is the technology. We are so often playing by yesterday's rules when it comes to government. Technology is lightyears in front of us.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, before I yield to the gentleman from California, let me say that we have to have child-centered education. Right now the Washington, DC school district spends, I think it is about $10,000 per child because I know that Utah is the lowest in the country at about $3,400 and Washington, DC is the highest in the country. We spend $10,000 per child in Washington DC, and yet this Congress is going to have to spend an emergency appropriation to fund new boilers in Washington DC because they are about to blow up. That is how wasteful, I would say, and overburdensome bureaucracy can be. The money should be going to the teacher and the classroom. I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, on the subject of campaign finance reform, I think there is a difference between enacting the laws that are in place and passing new laws to make it appear that there is a problem. There may be changes that are needed in our campaign finance laws, but clearly there are laws on the books that address the very things that the Clinton administration has apparently engaged in. And if they are guilty on that, the laws will respond accordingly, and I think that the Speaker is speaking to that, and I certainly believe that the Speaker was right in speaking out on this. The thing I want to mention, with the Democratic defeat of the Balanced Budget Amendment, the children of today are in a very bleak situation as respects the future. I am a father of 4 kids and I am sick and tired of the kid tax. The kid tax is when liberal politicians pass new entitlement programs so that they can get reelected today so that your children and my children can pay for it tomorrow. I believe that the kids in America are sick and tired of the kid tax and we need to balance the budget and quit spending their money.