[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 26, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: January 26, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
               THE PRESIDENT'S STATE OF THE UNION MESSAGE

  Mr. CRAIG. Madam President, last night in the State of the Union 
Address, we heard our President speak from the well of the House in an 
emotionally charged statement that I think sincerely addressed some of 
the key issues that this country and our citizens demand be spoken to 
and clearly are beginning to demand that this Congress respond to in a 
responsible fashion.
  But, again, our President attempted to sell an idea that the American 
people are rapidly beginning to reject, and that is his concept and his 
wife's concept of health care reform.
  Clearly, we all recognize that our health care system does not serve 
all Americans. There are those who fall through the cracks and 
desperately need care, and this Congress should address that issue. 
Senator Kempthorne of Idaho, and myself, in the last week, have 
traveled across our State holding town meetings and listening to 
thousands of Idaho citizens, and we heard a very clear message from 
those citizens and that was: Do not vote for the Clinton plan.
  We do not want a federalized, federally controlled health care system 
in this country. Now, while we know there are needs and while we 
recognize that costs must be contained because our own insurance and 
our families' welfare is at risk, we also recognize that the Federal 
Government largely creates bureaucracies that grow in size while their 
ability to serve in a businesslike fashion rapidly diminishes, and the 
quality of what we attempt to achieve through these kinds of 
federalized programs ultimately does not serve the citizens in the 
fashion that they would expect to be served.
  So, Mr. President, I know you tried hard last night to sell your 
program. But be ready to accept a different program. Be ready to work 
with the Congress in making the kinds of adjustments that are going to 
deal with antitrust, that are going to deal with malpractice, that are 
going to deal with driving down the costs, but are going to allow our 
system, our quality, best-in-the-world health care system, to remain in 
the private sector where it belongs and where it can be controlled by 
the consumer and not a Federal bureaucracy sitting in Baltimore or 
sitting in Washington, DC, like our current Federal bureaucracy, that 
has already made Medicare a program that does not serve the citizen in 
the fashion that it was designed.
  Mr. President, you made another appeal last night. It was an appeal 
to law-abiding citizens--I think you called them sportsmen and 
hunters--to stand out of the way of their second amendment rights so 
you could control crime.
  Mr. President, it is not the law-abiding citizen's problem. It is the 
criminal of our society who misuses the gun that has created the 
problem in this country that has all Americans crying out for a 
solution. And if you will work with us here in the Senate in the 
crafting of a crime bill much like the one that we have already passed 
that goes after the criminal and not the law-abiding citizen and his or 
her constitutional rights, then you are going to have our full 
cooperation. We will work with you, we will devise and revise the crime 
laws of this country to go after the criminal and to hold whole the 
law-abiding citizen and his or her constitutional rights.
  One other issue, Mr. President, you are absolutely right on, and that 
is the question of welfare reform. If you stick to your ideas and work 
with us, we will have welfare reform and those combinations will serve 
our country well for now and into the future.
  I yield the remainder of my time.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Utah.

                          ____________________