This line has been used a lot around here and it is so true, the de Tocqueville line. `America is great,' he wrote in Democracy In America, `America is great because America is good.'

The people are good, they care about each other. They reach out to their fellow man. There are volunteer organizations that developed here in the 1800's and 1900's that just did not exist anywhere else in the world because Americans cared about each other and felt that relationship and kinship. And he said America is a great country because it is a good country. `And when America ceases being good it will cease being great.' We are ceasing to be good because we have delegated everything to this massive bureaucracy here in Washington to be good for us.

You hear the people, as you will over the next few months, get up and talk about: How can you be so mean as to not give money to--this or that. Folks, it is not my money. See, I am taking that money from somebody else who worked darned hard to make it. And who says I know best how to spend their money to help somebody else? That is the basic premise of what is going on here.

If you want to talk about the revolution that is going on, that is the basic premise. I care as much--I believe more--but I do not necessarily think I am the best person equipped to make those decisions for everybody. We can best make those decisions one-on-one, local communities and groups, as opposed to here in Washington, DC. That is the fundamental argument.

So, when you look at the first 100 days and you see what has happened in the U.S. House of Representatives, and I believe what will happen in the U.S. Senate, if you look at what we have accomplished and the hope that we have given to Americans that we in fact can change, that America, again, can be good, that America can be great, I think it is an inspirational story.

We have done something in the House--and I believe the Senate will follow--we have done something that is more important than any one particular thing, and that is, I hope, we have restored the faith that the American public used to have in their institutions. Because if they do not believe in us, if what we say is irrelevant, if they do not believe in anything we say on the campaign trail, that we are just a bunch of folks who say what we need to say to get elected--if they do not have any faith in what we stand for, if they think all we are going to do is change our minds when we get down here, then democracy itself is in danger.

If people do not believe in us anymore, if we do not stand for anything anymore, if all we are is symbols of a corrupt institution that does not respond to what the will of the public is, then democracy fails. It falls from within.

Whether you agree with what the House of Representatives has done, whether you agree 10 percent, or 90 percent, or 100 percent, you have to stand back and say `Well done. You did what you said you were going to do. We may not like it but, darn it, you did. And you have to tip your hat to that.'

Hopefully here in the Senate, while we did not sign the Contract With America, and no one in this institution did, and that is often repeated, we have an obligation to do something. We have an obligation to follow through and let the country know that elections do matter; that when the country speaks, we here in Washington, in both the House and Senate, listen.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?

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Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I yield time to the chairman of our freshman group, the Senator from Oklahoma.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Kempthorne). The Senator from Oklahoma is recognized.

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Mr. INHOFE. Thank you, Mr. President. I thank the Senator from Wyoming for giving me some time to talk about this.