Ehrlich on Washington column, January 31, 2000

MEWS FROM Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr Second Congressional District of Maryland 1 407 York Road, Suite 304 3 1 5 Cannon House Office Building Lutherville, Maryland 2 1 093 Washington, D.C. 205 1 5 EHRLICH ON WASHINGTON Week of January 3 1 , 2000 By Congressman Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. President’s State of the Union: Finding Common Ground This week, President Clinton delivered his final State of the Union address. I am happy to report he has adopted several longtime Republican priorities this year. I welcome his support and look forward to placing politics aside to continue the work from last year’s successful legislative session. Last year, the Republican-led Congress worked to reduce the size of government, return tax overpayments, strengthen Social Security, rebuild our national defense, and return education decision-making back to parents and teachers. Although Congress and the President do not agree on many issues, we found common ground on Republican priorities of improving education, reducing the debt, providing tax relief, enforcing gun laws, and strengthening our nation’s defense. Improving education I agree with the President’s commitment to funding for education. In particular, I hope he will join Republicans in supporting increased federal grants to states to better prepare, recruit, and retain good teachers. America’s hardworking educators deserve it; our children deserve it. We differ, however, on who controls the money. I believe local schools, parents, teachers and even students should decide what’s best for their schools. The President thinks bureaucrats in Washington should. Reducing the debt Our successful efforts to balance the budget and control federal spending has produced a budget surplus over the last two years. Most of the surplus came from taxes paid into the Social Security Trust Fund, money that has been locked away only for Social Security. After 30 years of Social Security spending, the federal government has a real surplus outside of money dedicated to Social Security for the second year in a row. Our fiscal discipline has allowed the federal government to begin retiring the $3.6 trillion publicly held debt. The recently announced budget