Jack Kingston

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. It is ironic because you hear so often about cutting the budget and you hear about the Pentagon waste. You hear all about agriculture waste. And yet the two agencies that have had the biggest budget cuts of all are the Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And if we can get HUD and Health and Human Services and Education and some of these other agencies to take the cuts just in percentage that defense has taken, we would be very close to having a small deficit compared to the $200 billion deficit which the President's budget projects for this year.

Mr. KINGSTON. In terms of dollars, we had a budget in 1991 of just shy of $300 billion. And now this projection, and I do not know if you or the gentleman from California, Mr. Dornan, had a number, but is it 260?

Mr. KINGSTON. Now, we are also about to consider an emergency budget for the military of about $3.4 billion. Of that, one-half of it is going to come from cutting existing programs. But then the other half of it has already and actually going back to Iraq as well. One of the things that concerns me as we do some of this globe trotting and getting back to the Rangers and the Marines and so forth is that when we were in Somalia there was not a clear American peril, there was not a clear objective and there was not a clear mission, there was not a clear timeframe to achieve the mission nor a plan to get our personnel out. And if you are a service person going over there, then it is going to have to be a little bit discouraging. Even as loyal as I know that they are, it is very discouraging to realize they are doing these missions, and there is not a statement, there is not an objective. So I think in terms of the dollar, it is one thing. But the morale is another.

Mr. KINGSTON. I am going to have to grab a little time here to say it is also true with the Rangers. Fort Stewart is in the district I represent, the 24th Infantry Division, and my district manager's husband is a Ranger and another employee's husband is a Ranger, and they are gone all the time. And they are first class people, just topnotch.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I guess it is just true that as long as there are people like the gentleman, and some of the others you have mentioned tonight and in the past in your speeches, I think there will always be somebody inside and underneath the dome who is looking out for the American service personnel and the security of our Nation. I appreciate the gentleman's leadership on this. I appreciate being with you tonight. I know you have some other comments, but I'm going to yield the floor and wish you the best and plan to support you in these endeavors, and work with you.

Mr. KINGSTON. You were saying earlier that the number of divisions in the U.S. Army is being scaled back from 18 to about 10. What is happening in the Marines, particularly as respects this program? Because if you do not have the manpower, you do not have the technology. I know that we have got shuttle diplomacy, and I do not know that this administration has really anything to brag about on shuttle diplomacy. I think the Carter administration sure does, it has resurrected itself quite well.

Mr. KINGSTON. Now that being the case, as I recall, and I used to know the number, but the American casualties were just incredibly low for a conflict of that scale. Does the gentleman remember the numbers offhand?

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, let me ask him about Desert Storm. Now that was what, a 43-42 day war?

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I say to the gentleman, ``Thank you, Mr. Hunter. I wanted to make sure I got this straight. You were saying earlier that what the President or the administration had said is that we can fight a battle on two fronts, a war on two fronts, and, listening to you, I'm not so convinced that is true. How would you respond to that?''

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. I know my time is up, but the thing that Ronald Reagan did, as much as anything, was let you believe in the American dream again. And one of my dreams, my mother was a Republican Party leader for many years, when I was a small boy, one of my dreams was to be a Member of Congress. And I think Ronald Reagan assured me that the American dream was alive and well. And so you are correct on a very personal level.

Mr. KINGSTON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I certainly appreciate being part of this great special order on a great American, and have enjoyed listening to you and Mr. Diaz-Balart and Duncan Hunter.My wife and I actually met through College Republicans. We were so enthusiastic in 1979 with the Reagan campaign, when he won, and Libby would say to me on many occasions, ``Don't you just love this President? He's the first one in our life we can be absolutely enthusiastically thrilled over,'' and so forth, and she would go on and on and on about Ronald Reagan. I finally said, ``Libby, I think you love Ronald Reagan more than you love me.'' And she said, ``Yes, but I love you more than I love George Bush.'' So she put it in perspective for me. But as you have pointed out, it is absolutely true that Ronald Reagan defeated the Soviet Union without firing a shot. And I think today that the freedom that we have and the democracy that they are getting is simply because of that war. It was the coldest of wars, and yet it was so important. And as people look back and criticize the military buildup during that period of time, that maybe they would prefer to have a deficit than they would to have the deaths of young Americans that would have happened had we continued on the road that we were on. As you have pointed out, he did the same all over South America and all over the world, and restored America to being a true world leader. I have heard the saying many, many times that there shouldn't be a policeman of the world, but if there is one, let it be America. And that is what Ronald Reagan did. It was always peace through strength. In addition to that, there is so much domestically. Creating 18 million jobs, the largest peacetime prosperity in the history of this Nation. Bringing down interest rates. Interest rates in the late seventies were 20 percent. When Libby and I went to buy our first house in 1979, the interest rates were 16 percent. How many young couples can get on their feet with paying 16 percent interest? It is very difficult to do. Inflation, 12 percent when he took office. And he brought it down to the extent that now it is hardly even a campaign discussion. The Iranian hostage situation, remember now depressing that got to Americans and how we were told, well, we just cannot go in there and play cowboy anymore. Ronald Reagan did not have to. All he had do was put on his uniform and then the Ayatollah got the message. The great thing about Ronald Reagan, I would say, beyond those accomplishments was that intangible American spirit that we have within all of us that he reached in our heart of hearts and made us pull out. The other night at this alumni dinner, there were so many people there from all over the country who had returned to Washington to celebrate Reagan's 84th birthday. There were many, many people there from all over the country. One man who was not there is a constituent of mine, Joe Tribble who was a Reagan appointee in the Department of Energy. But like Joe Tribble, the people who were there the other night were there not because they served in the Reagan administration. That was a job and it something they believed in. And they were all there to say, here was a guy who was a clear-cut thinker, a great American. If you look at the PATCO situation, there would be so many Presidents who would waffle on the air traffic controller strike. So many Presidents and politicians in general who would say, I am not sure, maybe they should have a right. Reagan said, they took an oath of office that they would not strike. They struck. They are fired. It was clear cut. You might not have always agreed with Ronald Reagan, but he told you how he thought. He told you what he was going to do. And he did it. And that was a strength that made him such a great American leader and world leader, because at the time we had forgotten those sort of things. I had the great opportunity to meet him one time, Libby and I. I was not serving in Congress with some of you guys, but Libby and I had an opportunity to meet him in Savannah, GA, and had a chance to talk to him, one on one. What struck both of us is that he was a very sincere and very gentle and very graceful man. He would be the kind of guy you would describe as the last one to leave the foxhole, but the first one to open the door for a lady or senior citizen. Absolutely had the touch. You will remember the debate with Jimmy Carter, the famous ``there you go again,'' just the graceful way of saying, you know, we have had it, we have heard it. In 1984, I was going door to door, running for the Georgia Legislature. And I represented a very solid middle-class district and still have the honor of representing most of those people in my congressional or the congressional district that I represent. And I would go to the door and people would say, are you Republican or Democrat? And I would say, I am Republican. And they would say, I am going to vote for you because I have had enough. And I was the first Republican elected to the Georgia General Assembly from the 125th House seat, but I can say clearly, it was because of Ronald Reagan. Fortunately, I had the picture that Libby and I had with Ronald Reagan, and we put it in a big ad in the paper that said, ``Reagan- Kingston, let's face it, we need conservatives on all levels of government.'' A good friend of mine who was working for my opponent at the time told me, he said that ad sealed our fate. We knew that if you kept running a picture of you and Ronald Reagan in there, even though you were running for the State legislature, that would do us in. So I would say, I will yield the floor because I know that the gentleman from California [Mr. Hunter] wants to say a word or two. But just a great American, somebody that you are happy to be on the ballot with and happy to say, that is my President.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, imagine going to the grocery store to buy your daily fruit, vegetables, and meat, and when you go through the counter the clerk reaches over and sticks some caviar in your grocery cart. And you say, ``I don't want any caviar.'' And he says, ``Tough, you want your meat and potatoes; you have to buy my caviar. And if get too sensitive, I am going to throw in some Twinkies.'' Well, that is what the Congress has been doing to the American people and their President for too many years. But as of yesterday, with the passing of the line-item veto, we, the American people, can have our President stop it. Item three on the Contract With America has now passed the House. Call your Senator, ask him or her to support the line-item veto, and then we can have that lean, green, grocery shopping machine that we all want. Cut out the fat, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of House Joint Resolution 66, which is offered by a fellow Georgian, a colleague of mine, a Democrat, Nathan Deal. It has bipartisan support, and I think it solves the problem that we are having on term limits, which is a philosophical debate amongst members of the same philosophical family. That is to say, should we pass a 12-year term limit or 6 or 8 years. What the resolution offered by Representative Deal does is say we will pass a bill, a constitutional amendment, requiring a 12-year term limit as the outer parameter, but if States want to continue with their own term limits under that amount, they are welcome to. For example, the State of Florida right now has a term limit of 8 years. I believe California has one of 6 years. They can continue having that, and yet there will still be an overall limit of 12. This will help 19 States that already have term limit laws below 12 years. Mr. Speaker, I think this is in line with the Contract With America, it has bipartisan support, and I urge its passage.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I am glad listening to the Democrats that they are finally getting off Newt Gingrich and talking substance on the Contract but as usual it is mostly specious emotional arguments hardly based in reality and it would seem incredible to me for somebody to say that the Contract With America is going to mean that 800 senior citizens in his own district would be going hungry. I find it incredible that the gentleman who is an elected Member of Congress would take such a tactic and one of such stature at that. I hope that in the future we can have a more honest dialog.

Mr. KINGSTON. I would be glad to yield time, but I have to make a statement on something else. Then if we run out of time, if perhaps someone on your side would yield time, I would like to engage you, because what I would like to talk about is entirely off the subject. But I did feel it was appropriate to react to that which of course is why we are here, to have good substantive debate on subjects. Mr. Speaker, what I want to talk about, something that happened on the mall outside of the Capitol this morning, and that was a celebration of National Day of Women and Girls in Sports. This was an important event for many reasons. There are so many different activities that go on in Washington that often we say, oh, that's just one more demonstration, so to speak. Today in high schools, 38 percent of the girls are participating in athletic programs. That is up from 24 percent 10 years ago. But I think the real story is actually in the elementary schools. The young girls are participating in sports. They are flooding the soccer fields. They are on the tee ball and baseball diamond. They are running out on the basketball courts, and all the other traditional boys arenas now have young ladies playing. Indeed, those of us who are fathers look forward to watching our girls just as much as fathers with sons look forward to watching their boys. I want to emphasize also that this is a national trend. This is not going to be stopped or end at the county recreation level. These young ladies will grow to be women who are athletic and they are going to take the sports with them throughout junior high, high school and college, and hopefully professional. We will, I believe, 20 years from now go to see women's soccer games and women's basketball games with the same alacrity and the same enthusiasm and the same vigor that we are now seeing men's sports. I think it is important for us as a country to realize that. I say that one of the best benefits of this is that for those of us who are maybe a little shell-shocked after the Super Bowl wondering who is going to go on strike next, that we are tired of the overgrown, pampered, greedy, self-indulgent millionaire prima donna players and owners who dominate our national pastime. We are sick of it. These striking athletes have built an empire which is collapsing under the weight of their own grandeur. I think it is time to open up the system, end their monopoly and let the girls on in. I am glad to see it. personal responsibility act Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas so we can get back to our dialog.

Mr. KINGSTON. Reclaiming my time for the purpose of asking a question, I am not sure about the details of that, but if I am hearing the gentleman correctly, he is saying if somebody is 63 years old and in good physical shape and able to work they are entitled to a free meal just because of their age.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. No hugs for thugs. They need to be in an institution, which we call the big house back home, or pay restitution. I do not know what they call it on Ohio, but you need to have people in jail. They have broken the law. We have decided in society that certain people need to be insulated from others and they need to be in jail. They need to be in an institution or they need to be out on the streets paying restitution, if they have stolen money they need to pay back to the victims. You know, we always forget the victims. I had a constituent call me. The woman was at home bathing her 3- year-old and some slime kicked down the door and raped her, and the son-of-a-gun was caught--fortunately not because of that, but because of another crime, and incidentally he had raped three or four people--he was getting out of jail 5 years later. Now, how would you like to be that husband, that sister, that brother, knowing that creep was back out on the streets in your hometown? It is not right. That is what we have got to change. That is what the Contract with America tries to do.

Mr. KINGSTON. It is interesting you put crime and welfare right on top of each other because there is no question they are very related. The situation that we are in as a society is, we are not free if we cannot walk down the streets of America without having to look over our shoulder, without having the security guards, without discussing whether or not you can carry a gun to protect yourself. We are not free as long as there is the criminal, slime element on our streets. The Clinton program basically was a Hug-a-Thug program. Their idea of getting tough on the criminal was having him foul out in midnight basketball. Our criminals need arraignment, not entertainment. They need to be in the big institution or pay restitution. I mean, that is just the bottom line. We need to have the truth in sentencing law that says ``All right, if you are sentenced for 10 years you are not going to serve 3\1/2\ years, which is the 35 percent normal sentence; you are going to serve the full 10 years,'' or at least 9 years or 8 years. But currently it is just the revolving door, we bring them in, they have basketball, they have libraries, they have TV's. You cannot even make them work. Then we say: Why isn't it working? Why aren't our streets safe? We should say that we are going to put you in jail and you are going to stay there, and we will make you work while you are there.

Mr. KINGSTON. Well, you will have to buy the record.

Mr. KINGSTON. Does that bring us to crime on our discussion?

Mr. KINGSTON. We are at this point 2 out of 10 on the contract?

Mr. KINGSTON. It is $3 million in Georgia. It is interesting the party in power in Georgia was even against it, the same party as the White House and those who were pushing it here, so it is really not a partisan issue.

Mr. KINGSTON. I heard a statistic this morning I thought that was interesting. There are 39,000 municipalities in this great country of ours. Eighty percent of them are populations below 10,000, and 48 percent have populations below 1,000. We sit up here in our inside-the- beltway ivory tower mandating all these ridiculous programs on them. They do not have the money to pay for them. They do not have the personnel. Inevitably they have to turn around and raise the taxes on all the constituents back home.

Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman will yield, I got a letter recently, and I assume I was one of 435 Members of Congress who got such a letter. It was not a constituent, it came from Ohio, or some other exotic spot that we had to study about in seventh grade geography, but it had the letters DWUSUWGTD. It says to a Member of Congress: I want you to put it on your desk and look at it every day. On the back of the letter it stands for: Do what you said you were going to do. And my staff sees the sign every day, and I think that is in somewhat of a nutshell what the Contract With America is about. That is why it was in writing, that is why we signed it, and that is why we keep referring back to it.