GINGRICH TALKS TAX CUTS AT APPEARANCE FOR EMERSON

Congress should abolish capital gains and inheritance taxes and the nation should close off its southern border to drug trafficking, House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Friday.

Gingrich voiced his comments during a nearly hourlong speech to a crowd of about 700 people Friday evening at the Holiday Inn Convention Center in Cape Girardeau.

People paid $8 a person to attend the 6 p.m. event, which was part of a fund-raiser for the re-election of Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau.

Emerson, two of her daughters and her mother-in-law, Marie Hahn, sat on stage during Gingrich's speech.

Gingrich was in Cape Girardeau exactly a year ago for the funeral of Jo Ann Emerson's husband, Bill Emerson. The longtime congressman died of lung cancer.

Prior to the public speech, Gingrich attended a more intimate fund-raising event for Emerson in an adjacent room in the Convention Center.

About 200 people attended the $250-a-couple, roundtable discussion with Gingrich.

Officials said Gingrich's visit raised more than $30,000 for the Emerson campaign.

Prior to the roundtable discussion, Emerson and Gingrich appeared at an event at the Holiday Inn promoting the Safe House for Women.

At that gathering, he decried the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling Wednesday striking down the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act.

He told reporters that the nation needs a constitutional amendment to protect religious freedom.

He said the Supreme Court also made a mistake in 1963 when it took prayer out of public schools.

As to the proposed tobacco settlement, Gingrich said Congress must decide if the pact would lead to improved health for children or enrich trial lawyers.

He said the tobacco industry representatives and the lawyers involved in drafting the settlement don't have the power to write laws.

In his public speech, Gingrich said the nation needs a new "Contract With America" in three years to take it into the start of the next century.

He said grassroots committees need to be organized in every congressional district to push for an end to capital gains and inheritance taxes.

He said the American people should tell liberal congressmen to find new jobs if they don't vote to abolish the capital gains tax.

He said an effort should be made to triple the number of black- and Hispanic-owned small businesses to help create prosperity.

The Georgia Republican said he went to high school in the early 1960s in a nation that was drug-free, where high school students had to read to graduate.

Gingrich compared the nation's current war on drugs to the Vietnam War.

He said the war on drugs is being fought haphazardly at the local, state and national level. He said a national plan is needed to fight the drug war.

Gingrich suggested President Clinton has been soft on drugs. "Bill Clinton went on TV and said, `Just Say Maybe,' and drug use went up," he said.

Gingrich said the nation should go after the druglords. Convicted, professional drug traffickers should get the death penalty, he said. Lesser traffickers should be sentenced to life in prison, Gingrich said.

Mexico refuses to help stop the drug trade and the United States hasn't been serious about closing off the border to drugs, he said.

The United States should seal off the border even if it means building fences, he said.

Gingrich praised Congress for passing the first balanced budget in more than three decades.

The Convention Center crowd applauded when Gingrich talked of tax cuts.

He said the conservative majority pushed for and President Clinton will sign a bill giving Americans a tax cut for the first time in 16 years.

Republicans, he said, would push for more tax cuts next year.