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“AMERICANS WANT CHANGE NOW” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Commerce was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H8669 on Sept. 7, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
AMERICANS WANT CHANGE NOW
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Scarborough] is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. SCARBOROUGH. Mr. Speaker, I went home for the August recess and a funny thing happened before I went home for the August recess. I listened to all these political pundits in Washington, read Wall Street Journal articles that said this is the most revolutionary House of Representatives session since Reconstruction. I heard people telling us day in and day out we were too radical, revolutionary, too extreme, we were moving too fast.
Then I went home, and I held 30 town hall meetings across my district. I made over 100 speeches across my district. I talked to editorial boards, I went on talk radio, I went on TV. I worked my district for over 30 days and talked to more people in my district than I bet any other elected official has ever worked the district in 30 days in northwest Florida, and the message I got from them was quite different than the message I get from reading the Washington Post or listening to Peter Jennings.
They said what are you doing up there? Nothing is happening. You guys need to push it forward. You need to push change. We sent you up to Washington, DC. in November to make a difference and make a change. Now, do something.
I will tell you, it was a rude awakening. It shows how there is an incredible disconnect between Washington, DC. speak and what people in middle America are saying, and in the area that political pundits consider fly-over space between Washington, DC and Hollywood, CA.
Let me tell you something: The same voter anger that was out there in November of 1994 is still out there in August and September of 1995, and the Americans want us to move forward with our revolutionary agenda.
Now, they say it is revolutionary. I am going to tell you, I do not think it is revolutionary to balance the budget. I do not think it is so radical for the Congress to only do what middle class Americans have done for over 200 years, and only spend as much money as they take in. I do not think it is radical to cut burdensome regulations. I do not think it is extreme to give people their money and their power back.
What is so extreme and revolutionary to adhering to the Constitution? If the 10th amendment tells us that the Federal Government can only do what the Constitution specifically says it can do, and then the rest of the powers are reserved to the people and to the States, that ain't revolutionary by 1995 standards. Let us quit lying to the American people. That may have been revolutionary back 230 years ago, but let me tell you, it is constitutional mainstream thought today. The American people have realized it. I am just wondering when everybody else inside the beltway is going to realize it.
I will tell you, my feeling is if that is revolutionary, then count me in. We have got to cut taxes. We have got to balance the budget. We have got to slash regulations. My residents are telling me get us out of the United Nations and get the United Nations off American soil. They say cut corporate welfare. They say get the IRS off our backs. They say do something, make something happen, make a difference.
Well, let me tell you something. I came up here and I was fired up. I said man, I cannot wait to get up to Washington, DC. I have not felt this fired up in over a year since before I came up here and campaigned to get into Congress the first time.
Then the first day back, I have Commerce Secretary Ron Brown come to my committee and testify under oath, under oath, that there is not a penny of corporate welfare in the Department of Commerce budget and that we should not abolish the Department of Commerce.
Let me tell you something, that is perjury. Plain and simple, that is perjury. The Department of Commerce is stocked with corporate welfare. Everybody in this body knows it. The corporations that get their windfalls from it know it. Bill Clinton knows it, Ron Brown knows it, the administration knows it.
We need to abolish the Department of Commerce. There is a plan coming before this house that is passing through committee that it needs to be abolished. We need to stop handing out corporate welfare, and we need to get Ron Brown, Bill Clinton and the Democrats in this House to support our bill. Abolish the Department of Commerce.
Then we need to move on and abolish the Department of Education bureaucracy, set up in 1979 as a political payoff to the teachers union. We have gone from spending $14 to $33 billion on education in the last 15 years and what has it gotten us? Declining test scores, an increase of violence in schools and dropout rates, and an increase in all the things we do not want. It is micro-management from Washington, DC.
When are they going to learn inside the Beltway that Washington, DC cannot micro-manage every single problem across America? We were sent up here to make a difference. We need to stay focused and make a difference, because Americans want change.
Mr. Speaker, that is what we are going to deliver to them.
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