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House Journal: Page 1889: Tuesday, April 25, 1995

 provides for 100,000 more police officers on our streets. We
have already - over the next five years - we've already awarded
over 17,000 police officers to over half the police departments
in America, including 158 communities here in Iowa. It
strengthens punishment under federal law.
The three strikes and you're out law in the crime bill is now
the law of the land. The first person to be prosecuted under
this law was a convicted murderer accused of an armed robbery in
Waterloo last November. If he's convicted, he will go to jail
for the rest of his life
The capital punishment provisions of the crime bill will cover
the incident in Oklahoma City - something that is terribly
important, in my view, not only to bring justice in this case,
but to send a clear signal that the United States does not
intend to be dominated and paralyzed by terrorists from at home
or abroad - not now, not ever. We cannot ever tolerate that.
We are also more secure from beyond our borders. For the first
time since the dawn of the nuclear age, there are no Russian
missiles pointed at America's children. And those nuclear
weapons are being destroyed every day.
We have reduced the size of the federal government by more that
100,00. We are taking it down by more than a quarter of a
million. We have eliminated or reduced 300 programs. And I have
asked Congress to eliminate or consolidate 400 more. We have
tried to give more flexibility to states - several states have
gotten broad freedom from federal rules to implement health care
reform. And we have now freed 27 states from cumbersome federal
rules to try to help them end welfare as we know it.
In the almost two years since Iowa received only the second
welfare waiver our administration issued, the number of welfare
recipients in Iowa who hold jobs is almost double from 18 to 33
percent. You are doing it without punishing children for the
mistakes of their parents - and I want to say more on that later
- but you are doing it. And that is clear evidence that we
should give the states the right to pursue welfare reform. They
know how to get the job done better than the federal government
has done in the past. We should give you all more responsibility
for moving people from welfare to work.
Now, here's where you come in, because I want to talk in very
short order, one right after the other, about the decisions we
still have to make in Washington. Do we still have to cut the
federal deficit more? Yes, we do. We've taken it down by $600
billion. The budget, in fact, would be balanced today if it
weren't for the interest we have to pay on the debt run up
between 1981 and 1992.
But it's still a problem and you need to understand why it's a
problem. It's a problem because a lot of people who used to give
us money to finance our government deficit and our trade
deficit, need their money at home now. That's really what's
happening in Japan. they need their money at home now.
We must continue - we must say to the world, to the financial
markets - we will not cut taxes except in the context of
reducing the deficit. America is committed. Both parties are
committed. Americans are committed to getting rid of this
terrible burden on our future. We must continue to do it.
Now, the question is, how are we going to do that? Should we cut
unnecessary spending? Of course, we should. How do you define
it? Should there be more power to state and local governments
and to the private sector? you bet. But what are the details?

Iowa General Assembly

Index: House Journal (76th General Assembly: Session 1)

© 1995 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

Comments? hjourn@legis.iowa.gov.

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URL: /DOCS/GA/76GA/Session.1/HJournal/01800/01889.html
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