Jack Kingston

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Chairman, the gentleman is correct. Let me ask the [[Page H 6987]] gentleman one more question: Are there any other programs that you know of offhand in this Interior bill that are cut 50 percent?

Mr. KINGSTON. I yield to the gentleman from Minnesota.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. Mr. Chairman, I think everything has been said except for one thing. This is not a huge advisory council, and maybe that is one reason why many Members have never heard of it. They do not think what it does is very significant. If you live in an area where there is a big historic preservation movement or even a small one, this advisory council is there. Their work is very important, and I do support the amendment and appreciate the gentleman for offering it.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Chairman, in response to Mr. Hutchinson's question, is it not true that the Historic Trust is working to reform itself from within already, and they have offered a plan to somewhat go private and change the way they are doing business, and in that regard they are moving towards what Mr. Hutchinson wants, but probably not at the speed he wants, but they are not sitting there trying to preserve status quo?

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. I do not think the problem that we are having right now is directed toward the Interior appropriations bill. It has to do with money.

Mr. KINGSTON. The gentleman is a learned politician and that is true. I was not here, neither were you, when we had the infamous Lawrence Welk debates where the U.S. Congress was funding the Lawrence Welk Museum. I am not sure where he was from.

Mr. KINGSTON. You and I are, but we are not going to have any more votes tonight until Members agree to the final print in the appropriations process. One of the things, as you know, that we do is when we reduce spending on a bill, we try to earmark the funds from one area to the other. So a lot of times a guy from one area of the country will try to cut spending from somebody else's area, because it is cheap. There is a political cost to him or her.

Mr. KINGSTON. What has been going on is that the appropriations process, this $1.4 trillion that we spend each year of taxpayer's money and future taxpayers' money, because we deficit spend, as you know, it is broken down in 13 different bills. Each of those bills has a number of cuts; each of those bills has a number of eliminations of policies; each of those bills reduces the growth of spending. And because of that, the Interior bill is controversial, as any other of the 13 bills are, because Members feel very strongly about certain pet projects that are being cut and so forth or being reduced. So as has been the case here lately, now that we are getting into the appropriations cycle, there is a little more friction, often between parties but sometimes intraparty, among the House Members. So we are having to adjourn for the evening here.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, we have tried to revise the way we do business in Congress. Everybody is excited about getting out early tonight. We have done a lot of things to revise and change the status quo in Congress. And this freshman class and this new majority has really just rebuilt the way we do business. As Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, Pat Roberts says, ``The status quo doesn't live in Washington, D.C. anymore.'' One of the things we did early on is pass a balanced budget amendment in the House. Now, the United States' other body has not seen fit to pass the balanced budget amendment yet, but in the House of Representatives, we are living under the philosophy that we did pass the balanced budget. It is the intent of the American people to balance the budget and all of our appropriations bills are moving us in the direction of having a balanced budget by the year 2002. Now, a lot of people ask me why are you waiting seven years? And unfortunately it does appear that there are so many programs, it is so complicated when you are spending $1.4 trillion, that you have to go about these things slowly. Part of the mechanism for balancing the budget is reducing spending, consolidating Government agencies, eliminating bureaucracies, eliminating duplications, getting some of the redtape off of small businesses and large businesses so that they can grow, expand in the economy, create more jobs, and bring in more tax revenues as a result of that. I see the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Hoke] is here, the able-bodied chairman of the Theme Team, the most articulate Member of the floor. If the gentleman would like to add to this, I will yield to you.

Mr. KINGSTON. Of the 435 House districts, all of them but one thought that that was pork. And, yet, we all have that problem.

Mr. KINGSTON. Certainly.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. One of the things I want to make sure I understand clearly on Medicare is, I hear that the Republicans are changing it and, yet, is it not the Clinton-appointed Democrats who are saying that Medicare is going to be broke in under 6 years; is that correct?

Mr. KINGSTON. Yet they are criticizing what we are trying to do when we talk about strengthening and preserving the system.

Mr. KINGSTON. What has the Democrat leadership done through the Clinton administration or through the House to offer Medicare solutions?

Mr. KINGSTON. But the gentleman, if he will continue to yield, it is the Clinton Democrats who are saying Medicare is going broke and yet it is Members of the Republican Party who are trying to preserve and strengthen Medicare through reforms?

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Is it not the intent of this Congress, this Republican majority, to increase spending on a per person basis on Medicare from a $4,800, approximate----

Mr. KINGSTON. But, in fact, is it not true that the committees are talking about going from about $4,800 per person to $6,400 per person? Those are round numbers. Is that not an increase over the next seven years?

Mr. KINGSTON. As Mr. Fox of Pennsylvania said earlier tonight, we are looking at ways to slow the growth, the expense of Medicare to the senior citizens. Medicare inflation right now is about 11 percent. Regular medical inflation is lower than that. Regular inflation, I think, is about 4 percent. So we are trying to reduce that level of cost increase.

Mr. KINGSTON. Well, the thing that I am curious about is this administration made such a big play on health care reform, it is interesting that they are absent to the Medicare, except to criticize.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, this is the report of the Clinton, the Democrat Clinton trustees that came out in April. [[Page H 6899]]

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. I would only say if they had not given you the chance, you would have made it or taken it.

Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman will yield, since I am only an honorary member, I wanted to say this, what I say about the freshman class, when I go back home, on a bumper sticker, the freshman class is a group of normal people who do not want to be President, they do not want to be in the U.S. Senate, they do not want to be here forever, but some of that may happen. But for the time being, they want this, and that is to cut the budget and go home, and you are a class of business people, of homemakers, of lawyers, of teachers, of entrepreneurs, you have all kinds of different people there, but, again, you want less regulation, less government, less micromanagement out of Washington, more personal freedom. I think because of that that is why you are on the offense, because the American people are with you 100 percent.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.