DeLay Sets Congress’ 2000 Goals

A House Republican leader set a four-item agenda Saturday for the GOP-controlled Congress next year, including another stab at lowering Americans’ taxes.

“We want you--not the government--to decide how to spend your hard-earned money,” Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) said in the party’s weekly radio address.

“We believe that you, the American people, are responsible for the greatest period of economic prosperity, innovation and success in history. And if we can continue to get Washington out of the way, we believe the future will be even brighter.”

DeLay, the GOP whip, pledged that in addition to lowering “the tax burden on Americans” the Congress will seek to end the so-called marriage penalty that affects most two-wage-earner married couples, pay down the national debt and protect Social Security.

He credited five years of Republican control in Congress for a list of changes: welfare overhaul, tax relief, changes in the Internal Revenue Service’s procedures, a balanced budget, military pay increases, local control over schools. The list would have been longer, DeLay said, had President Clinton not stymied other GOP initiatives.

“If the Republican tax relief plan had not been vetoed by the president this year,” DeLay said, “you would have had more to give this holiday season to your families, friends or those in need.”