[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 35 (Thursday, March 24, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 24, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                       THE CLINTON YEARS, PART IV

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Dornan] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, about 35 Republicans were jammed in the 
Cloakroom tonight watching Mr. Clinton's short press conference. It was 
even shorter if you count only the time that he spoke. I do not think 
it solved many things, but two things come to mind.
  One was, he referred to himself and Mrs. Clinton as middle-class 
folks or something like that. Pulling down over $200,000 a year between 
them hardly qualifies them for middle-class status, particularly in the 
second poorest State in the Union. In fact, they would be considered 
the very rich under his tax plan.
  I wanted to put into the Record an article by Lisa Shiffren that 
appeared in the American Spectator a couple of months ago which exposes 
the various funds that then-Governor Clinton was allowed to tap and 
which allowed him to have a very comfortable life. These funds were out 
of the control of the Arkansas Legislature. I think I will just submit 
the front page so we do not get into any of these cost problems.
  Mr. Speaker, when Mr. Leach, my colleague from Iowa and my classmate 
from 1976, spoke on a point of personal privilege on the floor tonight, 
I think his last sentence will ring through history. I know he is going 
to add more to this and asked permission to do that at the end of 
business today.
  His last words were, ``Rather than high crimes and misdemeanors, the 
issue today relates to high improprieties and breaches of the public 
trust.''
  Well, that is for openers. I hope people will treasure the 
Congressional Record of today, because in it will be Mr. Leach's 20-
page statement that he has permission to augment.
  Mr. Speaker, this whole Whitewater controversy is sinking into the 
popular culture.

                              {time}  2130

  The opening of the last two very popular youth culture shows, 
Saturday Night Live, began with Whitewater. I have in front of me the 
text from the night of March 12. It is so rough I cannot even put it in 
the Record.
  I think it was payback time for comedian actor Phil Hartman, because 
the White House had blocked him from entertaining the Queen of England 
at a command performance. They did not want him doing a parody of the 
President of the United States. Can you imagine, if Mr. Reagan or Mr. 
Bush had ever shut down an actor in England?
  I will put in the Record the transcript of a song that opened 
Saturday Night Live on 19 March. It is stunning to think that young 
people are going to get their education on Whitewater more clearly from 
comedians on a popular NBC comedy show than they will from the 
President himself.
  Mr. Speaker, the President was on ABC television last night and the 
night before talking about his particular brand of Christianity. He was 
asked by Peggy Wiemeyer, of ABC, about abortion.
  He said, ``I think there are too many abortions in America,'' and yet 
his policies are driving that number up. He said, ``I think there 
should be more adoption in America.'' There are only 50,000, and we 
know why. Then he says, ``I do not believe it is self-evident from the 
Bible that abortion is murder.''
  ``As for homosexuality, well, the whole issue of homosexuality did 
not make it into the Ten Commandments.''
  Look up there, Mr. Speaker. Look at Moses looking down at you and 
this Chamber. Did Mosaic law have to identify grand theft auto and 
pick-pocketing for us to know it is wrong?
  What Mr. Clinton ought to know is that any religion that respects 
Mosaic law and the commandment, ``Thou shall not commit adultery,'' 
considers homosexuality and acts of sex outside of marriage sin.
  Here is Clinton February 3, after he was lectured to by Mother Teresa 
who begged him not to kill babies, to give them to her. He was at a 
junior high school here in the District. In response to a child's 
question, he says that ``Children are not prepared to take the 
responsibility for children, having children. They are not even able to 
take responsibility for themselves. This is not a sport,'' referring to 
sex, ``this is a solemn responsibility. Look at it hard.'' Great words, 
but I understand some of the kids chuckled.

  That night on NBC Jay Leno said, ``If sex were a sport, Michael 
Jackson and Mr. Clinton would obviously be up for gold medals.''
  Mr. Speaker, but as bad as that is, Joycelyn Elders is probably going 
to do more as Surgeon General to hurt the moral climate of our country 
than any other appointment of Mr. Clinton's, and that is saying a 
mouthful. I begin by urging everyone to look at the letter by James 
Cardinal Hickey that I submitted during my one minute this morning on 
the latest outrage by Dr. Elders.
  Here is an article from the Wanderer, by a lady, Anne Stewart 
Connell, that describes accurately how Dr. Elders actually have a 
slave-master mentality. In her speech on February 25 to the Family 
Planning and Reproductive Health Association, all a euphemism for 
abortion, she blasted the medicaid system for its white male slave-
owner mentality. But Connell rightly points out, ``She has it all 
wrong. It is she who demonstrated slave-owner mentality in her arrogant 
and sarcastic words and actions.''
  Mr. Speaker, I will include this article for the Record. It may move 
people to subscribe to The Wanderer, which I think is the clearest-
thinking Christian publication today.
  The final thing I would like to put in is the latest press release 
from the General Counsel of the Plaintiffs, the Association of American 
Physicians and Surgeons, and the American Council for Health Care 
Reform, and the National Legal and Policy Center.
  Today they filed a motion for summary judgment and permanent 
injunction against, get this mouthful, Mr. Speaker, the 
Interdepartmental Working Group of the President's Task Force on 
National Health Care and its 15 cluster groups, 43 working groups, and 
4 subgroups. They are taking on Ira Magaziner, another Rhodie who 
actually got his degree, whereas Clinton did not, who is running this 
health care task force with Mrs. Clinton. The AAPS said that he 
testified under oath that those 511 people that were on that Health 
Care Council, that long mouthful I just said, were composed entirely of 
Federal Government employees.
  Not true, not by a long shot. It looks like there is a huge conflict 
of interest here, and the judges on this case are going to eventually 
demand the release of all of these documents. I think the press 
conferences to come in the future are going to be more and more 
fascinating. I fear a Presidential meltdown, I had great respect for 
Jimmy Carter and enjoyed every invitation to the White House, and went 
there about 7 to 10 times when he was President. I look forward to 
going there to visit with the 43rd presidency, a former colleague and a 
great guy, Al Gore.
  (Articles referred to follow:)

       On March 23, 1994, the Plaintiffs, *Association of American 
     Physicians and Surgeons, *American Council for Health Care 
     Reform and the *National Legal & Policy Center: filed a 
     ``Motion for Summary Judgment and Permanent Injunction'' 
     asking that the *Interdepartmental Working Group of the 
     President's Task Force on National Health Care Reform and its 
     15 Cluster Groups, 43 Working Groups and 4 Subgroups be 
     declared Advisory Committees for purposes of the Federal 
     Advisory Committee Act on the grounds that the 
     *Interdepartmental Working Group and its Cluster Groups, 
     Working Groups and Subgroups were not composed ``wholly of 
     full-time officers or employers of the federal government'' 
     and that they were established on January 25, 1993 by the 
     President and utilized by him for purposes of developing and 
     making recommendations on national health care reform, to 
     wit, the *Health Security Act of 1993. The injunction would 
     force the disclosure of all records of the Task Force and its 
     Cluster Groups, Working Groups and Subgroups.
       Accompanying the ``Motion for Summary Judgment and 
     Permanent Injunction'' were nearly 2,000 documents produced 
     by the White House which reveal startling information. The 
     documents illustrate that *Ira Magaziner's Interdeparmental 
     Working Group and all 15 Cluster Groups, 43 Working Groups 
     and 4 Subgroups were not, as Magaziner testified under oath, 
     composed entirely of federal government employees, but, 
     rather, consisted, in every instance, of large numbers of 
     persons with vested private interests who have the world to 
     gain by the enactment of the Health Security Act of 1993, 
     which they developed and recommended. In over half of the 
     Cluster Groups, Working Groups and Subgroups, the leaders 
     were private individuals from health care interests who would 
     be key players in the Clinton Plan if enacted.
       Private interests such as United Health Care Corporation, 
     Chicago Health Maintenance Organization, Aetna, Travelers, 
     Liberty Mutual Insurance, Wausau Insurance Company, National 
     Capitol Preferred Providers Organization (Hartford Insurance 
     Company), Harvard Community Health Plan, Kaiser Permanente, 
     U.S. Health Care, EDS Health Care, PCS Health Systems, First 
     Health, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Alliant Health 
     Systems--all managed care companies--were represented in the 
     Interdepartmental Working Group. Other potential contractors 
     such as Rand Corporation, Alpha Center, Urban Institute, 
     Telesis, MCI Communication, Coopers & Lybrand, Price 
     Waterhouse and the Principal Financial Group served on the 
     Task Force. The list of special interests--all seeking 
     special roles in the proposed health care plan as 
     contractors, alliances, administrators and medical auditors--
     is enormous.
       Moreover, of the many members of the Interdepartmental 
     Working Group and its Cluster Groups, Working Groups and 
     Subgroups who were listed as ``special government employees'' 
     by the White House, only a small number (35) filed conflict 
     of interest forms and of those, many of the forms were 
     filed late and others were backdated and possibly forged. 
     Of those special government employees who had serious 
     conflicts of interest--and there were a sizable number--
     none had complied with the Ethics in Government Act by 
     obtaining waivers. Of significant importance is that even 
     the President and the First Lady, prior to the time their 
     assets were placed in a blind trust, had invested in at 
     least one managed care company--United Health Care 
     Corporation--whose vice president served on the 
     Interdepartmental Working Group and many Cluster Groups, 
     Working Groups and Subgroups.
       Probably the most serious problem raised by the Task Force 
     and its Interdepartmental Working Groups and its Cluster 
     Groups, Working Groups and Subgroups is the role of multi-
     billion dollar tax exempt foundations who were instrumental 
     in staffing and decision-making. The Robert Wood Johnson 
     Foundation, with $4 billion in assets, along with the Henry 
     J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Urban Institute planned 
     and staffed much of the Task Force. As they have done in many 
     states such as Arkansas, Washington, Kentucky, Minnesota and 
     Florida, these large, tax-exempt foundations developed the 
     format for the Task Force structure and asked their own 
     people, including many grant recipients, to sit on the Task 
     Force and develop the Clinton Managed Care Plan.
       In addition, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation had paid 
     ``Fellows'' sitting on the staffs of Sens. Kennedy, 
     Rockefeller, Wofford, Bumpers and Bradley who were passed off 
     to the Court by the White House as ``Congressional Staff'', 
     but who were wholly privately paid by the Robert Wood Johnson 
     Foundation. Ira Magaziner, of course, knew who these people 
     were as did Judith Feder, an official in the Department of 
     Health and Human Services, who was also on the Task Force and 
     who, herself, is a Robert Wood Johnson grant investigator.
       The insinuation of these multibillion dollar, private, tax-
     exempt foundations into the legislative and executive 
     branches of government, behind closed doors, in order to make 
     policy and legislation to benefit themselves and those they 
     seek to promote is frightening in the extreme.
       Clearly, the Interdepartmental Working Group of the 
     President's Task Force on National Health Care Reform is not 
     only fraught with conflict-of-interest problems, but 
     represents an effort to utterly co-opt representative 
     government.
                                  ____


                   Dr. Elders: Slave-Master Mentality

                       (By Anne Stewart Connell)

       The surgeon general, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, in a speech to 
     the annual meeting of the National Family Planning and 
     Reproductive Health Association on Feb. 25th, blasted the 
     Medicaid system for its ``white male slave owner mentality.'' 
     Elders has it all wrong. It is she who demonstrated slave 
     owner mentality in her arrogant and sarcastic words and 
     actions.
       Elders castigated ``white male slave owner'' Medicaid 
     because ``it fails to provide services to poor women to 
     prevent unwanted pregnancies, and this failure contributes to 
     poverty, ignorance, and enslavement.'' She complained that if 
     we really want to do something about illegitimate births and 
     unwanted births, Medicaid should support family planning at 
     the same level as prenatal care. * * * The Medicaid system 
     must have been developed by a male slave owner. It pays for 
     you to be pregnant and have a baby, but it won't pay for much 
     family planning.''
       What does slave master Elders mean by this? It's a known 
     fact that anybody who qualifies as being poor can get birth 
     control counseling and supplies from Planned Parenthood for 
     next to nothing. And when Elders was director of the Arkansas 
     Health Department, she attacked the ``deadly disease'' of 
     teenage pregnancy by establishing school-based clinics that 
     provided ``counseling'' and contraceptives to teenagers. 
     Result? Under Elders' tenure, the overall teen pregnancy rate 
     rose 12% in the counties with school-based clinics! What the 
     power-driven social engineers in Planned Parenthood and the 
     Clinton administration simply don't ``get'' is that trying to 
     impose their antilife values on women, young or not young, is 
     rejected as slave-master whipping.
       Elders also stated at this meeting, ``We always talked 
     about the separation of church and state, I want to forget 
     about the separation. Let's try to integrate church and state 
     so we can come together and begin to do things that make a 
     difference to people in our community.'' That's a very 
     interesting slave-master comment. What she is really saying 
     is that she wants churches to preach her antilife gospel; 
     support her immoral sanctions of abortion and contraception; 
     and declare her to be the ``pope of infertility.''
       This bigoted woman whom Clinton elevated to the position of 
     surgeon general was exposed in The Wall Street Journal on 
     July 22nd by Blant Hurt's commentary. Hurt, a Little Rock 
     businessman and a columnist for Arkansas Business, spoke from 
     firsthand experience. Elders triple-dipped salaries. in 
     addition to her ``two state salaries adding up to $103,297, 
     she was receiving $550 a day as a consultant to Donna 
     Shalala, secretary of Health and Human Services!''
       A person with the sleazy record of Dr. Elders is hardly in 
     a position to preach. But preach she does, and now she asks 
     the churches to sanction her slave-master beliefs and 
     attitudes. A message is in need of deliverance to Dr. Elders: 
     Just because you are black and a woman does not relieve you 
     of the judgment that you have a slave-master mentality. You 
     do, Dr. Elders, and it is totally unacceptable.
                                  ____


                     Bill and Hillary at the Trough

       Ever wonder why President Bill and First Lady Hillary seem 
     so genuinely to believe that all money earned in the 1980s 
     was somehow illegitimate and undeserved? Or why, after a 
     decade-long national experiment, they seem completely 
     indifferent to the effects of tax rates on people's 
     willingness to work? Or to the relation between incentives 
     and productivity in general? Or, most dismaying, why they 
     seem not to believe that most people who do well work very 
     hard for their money?
       When Bill Clinton nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the 
     Supreme Court, he said: ``I believe the measure of a person's 
     values can best be measured by examining the life the person 
     lives.'' In that spirit, Bill and Hillary's financial life, 
     as reflected in a decade's worth of tax returns, sheds light 
     on their values, and the experience that shaped their 
     economic worldviews.


                    subsidies for personal expenses

       Remember Bill Clinton's much-touted ``lowest-in-the-
     nation'' $35,000 governor's salary? That was merely his cash 
     compensation--mad money. For the decade he was governor, all 
     Clinton's personal living expenses (including food, shelter, 
     transportation, and entertainment), along with security, 
     housekeeping, administration, utilities, etc., were paid out 
     of various state funds. Including those expenses, the care 
     and feeding of their humble governor cost taxpayers in the 
     nation's second-poorest state more than three-quarters of a 
     million dollars a year according to the Arkansas state 
     auditor, Julia Hughes Jones. And it left Hillary's annual 
     $150,000 or so free.
       Two particular funds raise interesting legal questions. One 
     was a yearly $51,000 food allotment, intended for both state 
     functions and private meals, as well as incidental mansion 
     expenses and anything else the governor might wish to spend 
     it on. Unlike most expense funds, but like income, that 
     stipend was not subject to oversight by the state 
     legislature. (According to a former senior official in the 
     Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, ``One rule of 
     thumb used to determine what is income is unrestricted 
     discretion,'') While governor, America's First Appetite 
     annoyed the legislature by requesting a significantly larger 
     ``food allowance'' during a late-1980s period of belt-
     tightening. According to former IRS Commissioner Donald 
     Alexander, who has reviewed the returns, the $51,000 fund 
     ``probably constitutes a failure to report income.''
                                  ____


          Rockers to Explain Whitewater on Saturday Night Live

       Back in 1978, the Clinton's bought some land to sell 
     vacation homes. 230 acres to be exact.
       They borrowed $203 thousand with their friends the 
     MacDougals and formed the Whitewater Development Corporation. 
     That's a fact.
       In 1980 MacDougal buys the Madison Bank and Trust.
       He lends his partner Hillary 30 grand to build a model 
     house on a Whitewater lot. He loans her the money to get 
     around laws which prevent him from loaning money to himself 
     or his own company.
       That's the plot.
       It's very complicated. It's hard to understand.
       We'll try to walk you through it, come on and take my hand.
       In 1984 Whitewater helps Bill pay back a $20 thousand 
     personal loan to Cherry Valley Bank, and the Clintons claim 
     the payment as an interest deduction on their tax return.
       That's an illegal deduction, but the Clinton's blame their 
     accountants for the mistake.
       This is an intriguing turn.
       MacDougal pays back Clinton's loan and hires Hillary and 
     her law firm to represent his bank. Then she helps Whitewater 
     buy a new place of land with an illegal $300 thousand loan.
       MacDougal says he shipped the Clinton's all the files to 
     the Governor's Mansion and the Clinton's say they never got 
     them. These guys should talk on the phone.
       It's very tough to figure, where it all went wrong.
       But draw your own conclusions, from listening to our song.
       Madison Bank goes under, with $60 million missing. 
     MacDougal is arrested and in a conflict of interest, 
     Hillary's law firm is hired for a suit against the bank that 
     it used to represent.
       MacDougal is acquitted, but claims the Clinton's lost much 
     less than the $68 thousand they claim.
       In 1992 Clinton ran for President.
       It's really quite a puzzle, who did what to who.
       But we gotta get a handle, it's up to me and you.
       In 1993 Vince Foster, the Clinton's friend and attorney who 
     worked at the same firm as Hillary, filed long overdue taxes 
     for Whitewater which contradicted most of the established 
     financial numbers.
       After his suicide, important papers were removed from his 
     office. White House staffers met with the Treasury Department 
     and then Janet Reno named a special prosecutor and the House 
     began deciding whether to hold hearings and what kind to 
     hold.
       So finally the President had to bring Lloyd Cutler, an old 
     Democratic hand, to restore some order to his administration.
       We don't have all the answers, perhaps we never will. The 
     only ones who'll ever know are Hillary and Bill and MacDougal 
     and his wife and Webster Hubbell and Margaret Williams and 
     Vince Foster.

                          ____________________