Date: 1998-04-01
Speaker: BOB SCHAFFER (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Colorado

That is right. We were in the Committee on Agriculture talking with people from the Department of Agriculture. the regulatory bureaucrats who preside over the daily lives of farmers and ranchers and the hardworking people of America who produce our food. These bureaucrats were explaining their program. hearing Member by Member around the committee table talk about their frustration with these rules and regulations and our desire to see them change. I leaned over to the senior Member sitting to my right at the time. and after I had finished asking some questions and speaking and raising some pointed issues with these bureaucrats. I leaned over after it was all over. and I said. you know. I said I am starting to get the feeling they do not care all that much what we have to say or think. I remember his comment back. and he said just basically what I said before. He said that is because. after you are long gone. Mr. SCHAFFER. those bureaucrats are still going to be sitting in those chairs answering to some other people. who it is going to take them a few years to figure out that nobody cares what they have to say either. That really needs to change. The amazing thing is. our Founders were brilliant. wise leaders who had the perception to look years out in the future. Drawing upon their learned experience and knowledge about government systems. they were able to look out and realize that we needed a system of government where the people really are in charge and acknowledging certain inalienable rights. as they said right in our Declaration. that we have these rights. life. liberty. and pursuit of happiness. God gives us those rights. They are not invented by the government. We loan those rights to politicians at election time. In America the people really are in charge. And 220 years ago when these guys cooked up this idea in Philadelphia. it was a radical idea throughout the world. a world at the time that was governed by kings and dictators and oligarchies of sorts. To actually put the people in charge was something that. 220 years ago. was thought to never last very long. But over time this Congress has given more and more and more authority over to the bureaucracy. Those individuals on the other side of the aisle that we heard just a half hour ago are. in fact they represent the party that has. been struggling and fighting this Declaration and Constitution. those documents which are an obstacle to their ideas about governing. They have given authority away from the people. taken it away from people. given it to the government. They have created a huge welfare state. They refuse to consider any efforts to reduce the tax burden on the American people. I say this. the Democratic party has become the tax collectors for the welfare state. We are here. and we frighten them. We frighten those folks because we are talking about giving authority back to the people. We are talking about lowering the burden of government when it comes to taxes. We are talking about sunsetting all regulatory functions of the Federal Government. in fact. putting a termination date which at some point in time will force every single bureaucrat to account for their actions. to account for their necessity and. in the end. prove their merit and usefulness in order to continue in existence. a huge departure between what they represent on the left hand. what we represent here in the center of American political thought in the conservative Republican Party. It is the reason they come here and yell and scream and are frightened every night. because we are winning on the street. The American people realize that our profreedom. proliberty message is resonating with every single American across this country who are fed up with this liberal social way of life. They are looking for liberty and freedom. and that is what we are here to talk about tonight as a Republican Party.