WASHINGTON WATCH: DON'T READ LIPS; READ THEIR VOTES

George Bush said "read my lips." Bill Clinton told us to trust him, "I'm a new Democrat." Bush broke his promise within two years, Clinton in less than a month. Each passed one of the largest tax increases in history. Is it any wonder then that most voters were skeptical that House Republicans would keep their promises in the Contract With America?

But today, on Day 93, Newt Gingrich and his colleagues in the House of Representatives stand 9-1 on the items of the contract, with only their promise for term limits unfulfilled. In actuality, Republicans deserve some credit for term limits too. Never before have term limits come to the House floor for debate, let alone a vote. No longer do voters have to wonder where their representative actually stands on this issue.

The Republican successes are considerable. Congress must now abide by its own laws. Unfunded mandates are history. There will be a line-item veto. Out-of-control litigation will be reined in. Federal regulations will be cost-analyzed. Able-bodied welfare recipients must go to work. Welfare mothers will not be rewarded for having additional babies. More prisons will be built. Criminals will be dealt with as criminals and not "victims of society." The balanced budget amendment, defeated by one vote in the Senate, will be back. Taxes will be cut.

In short, Washington, with Republicans in control of Congress, is a changed place. Their contract promised to reduce the size and scope of government and return power to individual citizens, organizations and -- where government is necessary -- to the states and localities. They are delivering.

The debate and vote on tax cuts is particularly revealing. While Democrats decried the Republican plan as crippling government, Republicans talked about the importance of returning money to the people who earned it.

"Look at this and ask yourself," Speaker Gingrich urged during debate Wednesday night: "In your constituents' lives, won't a little less money for the government and a little more money for those families be a good thing? Isn't this what this Congress was elected to do?"

On a nearly party line vote of 246-188, the House passed the tax cuts, which include a $500-per-child tax credit for families earning up to $200,000 a year, a reduction in the capital gains tax, a new, more versatile Individual Retirement Account, a repeal of the Clinton tax on Social Security, a reduction in the "marriage penalty" tax and a number of tax breaks to encourage business growth. Where Democrats evoked all the same-old adages of class warfare, Republicans talked about the importance of strengthening the family and bringing prosperity to all -- not through government, but by getting government out of the way.

While the tax cuts are unlikely to make it through the Senate without change, there is no doubting the fresh, new attitude in Congress. Rather than debating about how much we need to raise taxes, as Congress did during the first two years of the Clinton administration, it is now debating how much we need to lower taxes and cut the size of government.

In the next few weeks, look for many in the media to say the Republicans have only done the easy stuff, now the hard part remains. In a way, they are right. What's ahead is always more difficult than what has been accomplished, and in seeking to put the government on a glide-path to a balanced budget by 2002, Republicans have tackled the most difficult of problems. If you thought the screams from special interest groups were loud last week when Republicans passed $17 billion in spending rescissions, wait until they try to cut over ten times as much. But it can be done.

For many years, politicians and bureaucrats have expanded the size of government. "We know better than you" has been their cry to power. Now, Republicans are challenging that assertion. Seeking to return power to the American people, they have brought a new attitude to Washington. They have started their mission by keeping the promises in the contract. It is a remarkable beginning.

Jon K. Rust is a Washington-based writer for the Southeast Missourian.