Jack Kingston

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone], my friend.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. And does the gentleman believe that the tax breaks for the working people of America, that, you know, most of it goes to people with a family earning less than $75,000, that that would not help stimulate the economy and, therefore, increase the number of jobs and, therefore, increase the revenues?

Mr. KINGSTON. What I would like to ask you in particular, but not necessarily--I mean you and a lot of other Democrats: If the Republicans said, ``OK, forget the taxes,'' then would Democrats then say, ``OK, we'll balance the budget in 6 years instead of 7?''

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. It is my intention to split that time with the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone].

Mr. KINGSTON. With both the Democrat and the Republican leaders having an hour left and there being less than 1 hour remaining, we would like to split the time. That being the case, I would like to know how much time each side would have.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I have a parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. I feel that I am a second-generation special order guy; I know that I am walking down a trail that was blazed by Bob Walker and Newt Gingrich and Jack Kemp and Duncan Hunter and a lot of guys before use who got a lot of people in the habit of watching C-SPAN, but more importantly got people to tune in to the issues of reducing the size of Government, providing tax relief, welfare reform, cutting down on Government, micromanagement out of Washington, and increasing personal freedom and responsibility, and I attribute that to Bob Walker.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Livingston] for yielding this time to me. As my colleagues know, I hear a lot of partisan finger pointing tonight, but this is not about Democrats, it is not about Republicans. It is about veterans. Do my colleagues want to help those who have helped us? Do my colleagues want to honor what they have done for us in the past? Samuel Johnson said we should always remember our forefathers and our future generations, but, more importantly, we should remember the sacrifices of the former on behalf of the latter, and that is what we are doing tonight. We are remembering our veterans. Now I would say to the gentlewoman from San Francisco, CA [Ms. Pelosi] we are not forgetting our children, we are certainly not forgetting the children. Our colleagues are going to give them a $5 trillion debt when they are through with their left-wing spending policies. If a child is born today, he or she owes $187,000 as his or her part of interest on the national debt over a 75-year working period of time. That is $187,000 above and beyond local, State, and Federal taxes. I say to my colleague, ``Boy, you have not forgotten the children, I must say, and I tell you what. If that's your idea of compassion, that's your idea of caring, if that's your idea of a great Christmas present, fast forward me and my kids to ground-hog day.''

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, the Democratic party has truly confused their role with Santa Claus, but not with giving gifts of their own making, with money they have confiscated from the overworked, overtaxed, underappreciated, middle-income working families. But what is worse, realizing that Christmas is about children, the Democrats have stolen the majority of their money for their left-wing extremist programs from America's children. Yes, that is true, today's children, taxpayers of tomorrow, will get a gift from President Clinton and his extreme liberal Democrat allies: a $5 trillion debt. If a baby is born today, over the next 75 years he or she will owe $187,000 as his or her portion of the debt above and beyond local State and Federal taxes. Mr. Speaker, if that is compassion, if that is the Christmas spirit, I would just as soon be celebrating ground-hog day.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. They have?

Mr. KINGSTON. I find that appalling, just to think about that. That, I believe, is why they have taken a full page ad out. As you know, they are not asking anything, really, out of the blue, but they are saying, ``Let us use CBO, Congressional Budget Office numbers, let us balance the budget in 7 years, let us have both parties and all parties come to the table,'' and the part in bold print is what is most important. ``Without a balanced budget, the party is over, no matter which party you are in.''

Mr. KINGSTON. Is that the official budget or is that the rump caucus, the blue tick budget?

Mr. KINGSTON. It is a balanced budget?

Mr. KINGSTON. The President of the United States, who has been bad mouthing Republicans in Congress assiduously for a year, has now introduced a budget that got zero Democrat votes? I find that bizarre, even for Washington.

Mr. KINGSTON. The gentleman from Michigan, David Bonior, the gentleman from Missouri, Dick Gephardt, the leaders of the minority, voted against President Clinton's plan?

Mr. KINGSTON. So it obviously got over 200 votes on the Democrat side, who rejected the Republican vote?

Mr. KINGSTON. We voted on it, right?

Mr. KINGSTON. He introduced it in Congress?

Mr. KINGSTON. I think it is ironic that rather than cutting the budget, rather than freezing the budget, we are actually debating increasing it $3 trillion new dollars, as the Republican plan indicates, or $4 trillion new dollars, as the President wants, and all we are debating is the growth.

Mr. KINGSTON. That is not even the official budget of the Democratic Party.

Mr. KINGSTON. Let me start out by asking a question, Mr. Speaker. I am not sure what the gentleman said. The President had a balanced budget plan, is that correct?

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to continue this dialog and discussion that we are having which the American people on Medicare, and I need to first begin with the 1995 April 3 trustees' report which said at the present financing schedule the Medicare Program is sufficient to insure the payment of benefits for only 7 years. It will be out of money in--it will be bankrupt in 7 years. Mr. Speaker, that is why the Republican Congress has taken the steps to preserve, protect, and strengthen Medicare. Now we are going this by ourselves. The Democrat Party, the President, has done absolutely nothing in this process to strengthen, preserve, and protect Medicare, but they are doing all kinds of things to scare the American people, saying, ``Cut, cut, Cut.' Mr. Speaker, in response to that the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Haley Barbour, put out this ad and challenge to the Democrats. It said, ``If you can prove that we are cutting Medicare, come get a check for $1 million.'' Now what I would think with over 200 Democrats in the House, that they would have been lining up because all we have heard, Mr. Speaker, for 6 months is Republicans are cutting Medicare, and yet somehow, when there is a million dollars in it, suddenly there is silence, and I have never known Democrats to be overwhelmingly statesmanlike, so I assume, when it comes time to put money where their mouth is, that they are not interested in really participating because, Mr. Speaker, they know that the truth is that Medicare spending is going from $$,816 per person to $7,100, and with that kind of truth, then they do not want to come get their million-dollar check. Now the gentleman from Pennsylvania who has just helped keep these charts on the floor has also studied this very carefully with me. I know he is on top of Medicare, but also on the budget as well.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is correct. Medicare is essentially 1964 Blue Cross plan, and I would not want my mama to be driving around in a 1964 Ford Falcon. I want her to have all the technology, and those options that you are talking about, she wants traditional Medicare, she can have it, but if she wants all the other options, she can. Now you know what is interesting is that we had to have a trustees' report on Medicare to tell us it is going bankrupt. As Members of Congress, we should have known that already, but there is one thing that we do not need the trustees' report on, and that is the fact that the U.S. Government is going bankrupt. We have a debt right now of $4.9 trillion which we are passing on to our children today, just because the Democrats and many others in Washington are acting like, well, this does not affect me. In some of the major newspapers in the country; I think the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Washington Times, maybe the L.A. Times; the CEO's of many of the Fortune 500 companies in America took out an ad urging Congress, urging the President, to balance the budget within 7 years. Now a lot of the colleagues on the other side of the aisle have been bad mouthing these people. Let me tell you who they are bad mouthing. I heard one of the speakers earlier tonight say how horrible these folks were. We are talking IBM, Ford Motor Co., Circuit City, Toys ``R'' Us, and, as I sat here and listened to what we used to call parlor pinks-- parlor pinks, as you know, were Socialists. They are not quite Communists, but they do not like--they are collectivists. They do not like people making a profit--bad mouth all these companies, and these are companies that have products in every one of our households around America, but, more importantly than that, the jobs. Where do these parlor pinks think jobs come from if not employers?

Mr. KINGSTON. Well, have you ever thought about this, Mr. Fox? What if the children could vote? All we hear from here is oh, the children, the children. What if those children who are going to be paying $150,000 in interest on the national debt over a 75-year period of time on top of their Federal, on top of their State, on top of their local taxes, what if those 5 year olds that we are so, that they are allegedly so concerned now about out there on the playground, what if they could vote?

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, yesterday when the President failed again to offer a balanced budget, he proved once more that old Democrats do not morph into new Democrats. In fact, it is clear that old Democrats do not even die, they just fake away. They fake at balancing the budget, they fake at negotiations, they fake at ending welfare as we know it, and they fake at inhaling. Well, today the CEO's across America have had enough. They have taken out this full page ad in the Washington Post saying end the gridlock, Mr. President. These are folks from Ford, General Motors, Circuit City, Toys-R-Us. What they are asking the President to do is what the Congress has already done: Use realistic numbers and the CBO scoring to balance the budget in 7 years. And I would say if the President will come to the negotiating table and do what he promised to do 3 weeks ago, then we can resolve this. I, for one Member of Congress, agree with the CEO's and the major employers across the Nation. I am going to sign my name to this. I invite my fellow Republicans to do the same, and I invite my fellow Democrats. If you agree with this, please put your name on this in front of the American people.