‘We congratulate President Sarkozy on his recent victory and his courage in attempting to restore France’s economic vitality. America welcomes him.’



Washington, D.C. – Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday regarding the visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy:



“Nearly two centuries ago the U.S. Congress welcomed back to America a great Frenchman whose bravery during the Revolutionary War still illuminates the pages of our nation’s early history.



“The Marquis de Lafayette wanted to come back to thank his ‘Revolutionary companions,’ and to see the effects of the freedom that he and the other veterans of 1776 had risked their lives to secure.



“His 1824 speech at the Capitol was the first ever by a foreign dignitary before a joint session of Congress. And he was introduced by a Kentuckian.



“Henry Clay happened to be speaker of the House at the time, and he said he could not have had a more gratifying duty than to congratulate the Marquis on his return and, as he put it, ‘to assure him of the satisfaction which his presence afforded this early theatre of his glory and renown.’



“I ask that Henry Clay’s remarks on that important occasion be re-introduced into the record, 183 years after they were first recorded there.



“Historians tell us that members of the Senate almost missed the Marquis de Lafayette’s speech. Clay and the other House members didn’t tell them it was happening until the last minute — and relations between the two chambers really haven’t been the same since.



“But America’s friendship with France has endured. As French President Charles de Gaulle put it in his own 1960 address before a joint session of Congress: ‘Our common past is filled with efforts and sacrifices. [And] it is great because at all times we have served together for freedom.’



“Like Henry Clay, I consider it an honor today to welcome another courageous Frenchman to the American Capitol.



“When French President Nikolas Sarkozy addressed the Congress this morning, he stood beside a painting of the Marquis de Lafayette. Like that great Frenchman, President Sarkozy sees much to admire in America. He spoke eloquently about that admiration today. And I think there is an important lesson in his words and in his election for the 110th Congress.



“President Sarkozy admires America’s openness to new ideas and new people. He admires our work ethic, and he has already begun to implement policies that will make hard work pay in France. In an effort to lure back the so-called fiscal exiles who have left Paris for London or Geneva, he’s cut the top tax rate from 60 percent to 50 percent. He plans to replace just two thirds of retiring government workers to shrink the size of government, and to end the right of some government workers to retire at age 50 with a pension. He is starting to take away the tools that French labor unions routinely use to cripple France. To encourage hard work, he has significantly cut taxes on overtime work.



“A lot of people on this side of the Atlantic — I’m one of them — were skeptical about whether President Sarkozy could actually get some of these sensible ideas past parliament. We hoped he would. We want France to be strong. But the cultural forces opposed to change seemed even stronger.



“Yet it turned out that his election signaled a deep sense of urgency among the French people, an urgency about their future. Sarkozy put it this way in his book Testimony:



I am convinced that no country in the world can get by without effort, and that France, notwithstanding its undeniable merits and prestigious past, will become a thing of the past if it doesn’t take the steps necessary to adapt to the changes taking place in the world.



“The French people surprised us by electing a free-market reformer, then they surprised us again by electing a center-right parliament that could get his ideas through. Some of those ideas, like cutting the top tax rate, have gone through. The winds of change are clearly blowing through France.



“And not just France. Over the past few years, the Old Europe model of big government and bloated entitlements has shown signs of cracking. Germany elected a reformist chancellor from the Christian Democratic Party. Canadian conservatives rebounded under Stephen Harper after near extinction. Even the socialists are admitting their mistakes. The Socialist former Prime minister of France, Lionel Jospin, shocked his fellow countrymen when he blasphemously declared that ‘The state cannot do everything.’ And in Italy, center-left Italian Premier Romano Prodi announced in July he would raise Italy’s retirement age from 57 to 61.



“Much of Europe, it seems, is trying to steer itself away from an economic model that has left it with double-digit unemployment and anemic growth. After scoffing at the Reagan Revolution just two decades ago, many of them are now taking our 40th president’s economic principles to heart.



“Meanwhile, here in the U.S., the new Democratic Congress has turned away from the ideas that righted our own economic ship after the crises of the 1970s. They’re proposing higher taxes on everything from the size of our houses to the gas we put in our cars. They’re handing out favors to Big Labor by proposing to end the secret ballot in union elections and by working to defund the federal office that was created to shine a light on how unions spend member dues.



“The Democratic presidential candidates are practically tripping over each other to propose newer, bigger entitlements to anybody in Iowa or New Hampshire who will listen. In short, some Democrats in Congress and on the campaign trail would like to turn America into France when even the French themselves are having second thoughts.



“The effects of the socialist model in France and other Western European countries are clear. President Sarkozy recently assumed control of a government that consumes more than 50 percent of France’s gross national product. In Germany and Italy, the percentage of GDP spent by government is above 45 percent. Compare that to about 30 percent in the U.S. As one economist recently put it, ‘Europe’s economy is so bad, because government is so big.’



“So we congratulate President Sarkozy on his recent victory and his courage in attempting to restore France’s economic vitality. America welcomes him. We are hopeful that he will help lead the people of France into a new era of prosperity and economic freedom — and strengthen the noble tradition of our two countries ‘serving together for freedom.’ And I urge my Democratic colleagues to heed his message.”



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