[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 142 (Tuesday, October 4, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 4, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1310
 
                          NO ONE ELSE TO BLAME

  (Mr. SENSENBRENNER asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SENSENBRENNER. Mr. Speaker, three speeches ago, the gentleman 
from California [Mr. Becerra] blamed the national debt increase on 
President Reagan. He ought to know better than that. Unless the 
Constitution was amended while nobody was looking, the Congress holds 
the power of the purse, and all appropriation bills must originate in 
the House of Representatives. Furthermore, because of the impoundment 
Control Act of 1974, passed when Democrats controlled both Houses of 
the Congress, the President has to spend every dime that is 
appropriated by Congress and that law makes it an impeachable offense 
for any President of the United States to withhold appropriations that 
have been made by the Congress of the United States.
  Rather than blame the President of the United States, Republican or 
Democrat, Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton, for the increases in the 
national debt, the Congress has nobody to blame but itself, and this 
House has been controlled by the Democrats for 40 years.
  Mr. Speaker, is it not time for a change which would really put the 
brakes on the national debt increase?

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