[John Tower Speech to Texas State Legislature about Southeast Asia, Feb. 22, 1967] Page: 1 of 8
This text is part of the collection entitled: Senator John G. Tower Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Southwestern University.
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REMARKS BY
U. S. SENATOR JOHN TOWER
TEXAS STATE LEGISLATURE
FEBRUARY 22, 1937
Mr. President, the distinguished members of the Senate
of the Sovereign State of Texas, gentlemen of the press, my
fellow Texans:
It's a great privilege for me to be here today, conscious
of the fact that I'm probably the first Republican Senator to
address this august body, perhaps in history. It makes me
feel a little bit like one lion in a den full of Daniels. But,
I do regard it as a very distinct honor and privilege to be
here with you today, and you flatter me by allowing me to
come here.
Certainly it would be presumptious for me to comment on
policy matters that you must make decisions on. You're far
more competent to deal with these matters than I am. As a
matter of fact, I have always reasoned that the representatives
of the people assembled in the Legislature of our sovereign
state are far more competent to deal with the problems that
are peculiar to us here at home in Texas than we in Washington
are. And, I can say to you that I've certainly dedicated my
life to the proposition that the federal system must be pre-
served and that we should leave as much as possible to the
decisions of you here in Austin.
I think one thing that you should understand and remember
is this: that you should resolve as many of our state's
problems as you can because here you are 100 percent of the
decision-making process. In the Senate of the United States,
you're only one-fiftieth of it. And, therefore, I'm hopeful
that in the future we will arrest the trend toward the cen-
tralization of power in the hands of the central government
and return and restore that power to the states where it
belongs.
Unfortunately, we in the Congress don't have sole
jurisdiction over this matter. The Supreme Court of the
United States has a few things to say about it. And, I won't
go into my opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States
here today, but I imagine I share that opinion with many of you.
Today we are confronted with many problems that vex our
people. Domestically speaking, we are operating a government
in the red. We are spending more than we're takingAin. We
are confronted today with a monetary crisis in this country that
I feel can only be resolved if we reduce federal spending.
I think that at the same time we should restore to the
states sources of revenue that the federal government has
pre-empted from the states. Now I do support a tax-sharing
plan, one that would result in the return of certain tax
receipts collected in the state to the legislature in the state
to spend as it sees fit. And, I think that money should be
returned to you with no strings attached, because I think that
you're more competent to determine how that money should be
spent than those of us in the Congress of .he United States.
But I wish we could go beyond that and simply return to you
tax sources that we have pre-empted from you so that the
decision-making process as to what taxes shall be levied and
how they shall be levied will be closer to the people, because
I submit that you here in Austin are far closer to the people
than we in Washington.
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Tower, John G. (John Goodwin), 1925-1991. [John Tower Speech to Texas State Legislature about Southeast Asia, Feb. 22, 1967], text, February 22, 1967; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth611880/m1/1/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Southwestern University.