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Guest Commentary: May 31, 2001
Advancing Freedom in a Divided Congress
The Honorable Dick Armey
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Last week, we made history. We passed the largest tax cut in a generation -- nearly $1.3 trillion over the coming decade.
It's an impressive achievement, and one we should pause to celebrate. It's long overdue. It provides substantial relief. It expands personal liberty. It encourages greater productivity and job creation. It favors marriage, promotes adoption, and eases the cost of education. It will make life better for our children.
It's also the capstone to a lot of hard work by all of us. True, a few Democrats helped us pass it. But it was Republicans who led the way over the past few years, passing one tax relief measure after another, shaping the debate, pressing our case, and rallying public support.
We've had a few setbacks, as when President Clinton vetoed our $792 billion tax cut bill back in '99. We came awfully close to getting derailed this past month. If Senator Jeffords had defected a week sooner than he did, the Democrats could easily have moved to block the bill, perhaps even killed it. Majorities matter.
Happily in the end we prevailed. Unhappily, Senator Jeffords's move does dampen our celebrations a bit and forces us to face a new majority in the Senate -- a majority clearly determined to raise taxes, expand government, and bring our progress to a halt. How should we meet this challenge?
First, let's all remember what we should not do. We should not wring our hands, nor passively let the Senate set the agenda, nor abandon our own common-sense agenda in a vain search for approval by pundits and liberals. That way spells defeat.
Second, I can't stress enough the importance of teamwork. In my experience, wherever we've succeeded, it's been because of our unity and discipline. From welfare reform to balancing the budget to paying down the debt to providing historic tax relief to working Americans, we have demonstrated time and again that the most difficult challenges are no match for us, when we hold together and lead the way.
For example, two years ago we said it was wrong to spend the Social Security surplus on government programs that had nothing to do with retirement security. President Clinton and his allies said flatly it couldn't be done. We proved them wrong. United in our resolve, we stopped their raid on Social Security. House Republicans stuck together -- and led the way.
Third, I think we should pursue bipartisanship. But by that term I mean honest compromise for the common good, as we saw with the just-passed tax cut. Not the Daschle-Gephardt definition of bipartisan: "doing it our way."
Fourth, we should do business with the Senate as we always have: accept its good bills, improve its flawed ones, kill its bad ones. Let us avoid needless confrontation. But neither should we let ourselves be cowed by demagogues.
Fifth, we should keep moving our reform agenda through the House without apology. United behind good ideas we can be darn near unstoppable. The Democrats may control the Senate, but our ideas remain strong and popular, and our agenda is a good one.
So let us continue to advance that common-sense agenda in the House, communicate its benefits to our fellow citizens, and force the other party to be constructive partners in our efforts or else be held accountable by the American people. ...
I'm told the professional punditry predicts gridlock for the remainder of this Congress. It needn't be so.
In fact, I think there's a good chance the 107th may be remembered as the first Congress in our lifetimes that was simultaneously able to balance the budget, shrink the debt, slow spending growth, and reduce taxes substantially -- all while helping avoid a recession. Now that's a record to take home to the voters.
Dick Armey is the House Majority Leader.
 How to contact Rep. Dick Armey (R-Texas)
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