[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 46 (Monday, March 13, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H3066-H3067]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           ON MEXICO BAILOUT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Stearns] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  (Mr. STEARNS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, my friends, in politics as in humor, timing 
is everything, and the timing of President Clinton's $20 billion 
bailout of Mexico could not be worse. At the very moment, the American 
dollar is taking a beating in world currency markets. The Clinton 
administration is sparing no expense to shore up the Mexican peso.
  In looking through some of the clips over the weekend, it seemed to 
me the timing of what President Clinton is doing is everything. For on 
this House floor this week we will be voting on a rescission package 
that cuts benefits for veterans.
  Now, how do the veterans feel about a rescission package that cuts 
the veterans at the same time we are shoring up the peso by giving $20 
billion to the exchange stabilization fund?
  Let me also talk to you about what the chief economist at Lehman 
Brothers, Allen Sinai said: ``The dollars' new all-time lows are being 
generated by the United States ties to Mexico and the panic flight 
right now of funds away from weak currency countries, Mexico, Canada, 
and the United States.''
  Need I remind the Members of this body that the exchange 
stabilization fund that is being tapped by the Clinton administration 
was set up explicitly to protect the value of the United States dollar, 
not the Mexican peso. Yet the administration has already disbursed $3 
billion from this fund to Mexico whose current political corruption 
saga contains more characters than a Tolstoy novel and is expecting to 
ship down the next $7 billion by the end of June. And for those of my 
colleagues who didn't read the paper this morning, Mr. Salinas, the 
former President of Mexico, has left Mexico, and now intends to reside 
in Boston, MA, and be a consultant.
  Mr. Speaker, James Madison wrote, ``The House of Representatives 
alone can propose the supplies requisite for the support of the 
Government. They, in a word, hold the purse.''
  My colleagues, what that means basically is Congress has to approve 
money that you spend. The administration can't take this kind of money 
from the American people without Congress approving.
  So that is why I call on the rest of the Members of this House to 
allow a vote on congressional approval for any additional funds to 
Mexico and suspend further payment until all the questions are answered 
from the Leach letter that we approved in a House resolution here on 
the House floor.
  I would like to conclude by reading a quote from a leading columnist 
in Mexico talking about the recent disruption in Mexico and the peso, 
and she said, ``Two things happened to Mexico under Mr. Salinas. He 
made us believe in the Government of Mexico and he anesthetized us from 
the corruption. Now the new President has made us see the corruption, 
and the result is we don't believe in Government anymore.''
  Mr. Speaker, now is the time to allow us to vote on this matter and 
suspend all further payments, particularly in light of the fact that we 
have a rescission package coming on this House floor that is going to 
be $17 billion, almost as much as the President intends to give to 
Mexico without congressional approval.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California [Mr. 
Rohrabacher].
  [[Page H3067]] Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, we will be voting on 
Wednesday on a major rescission. We will be voting to cut the spending 
for many programs that many of our people have learned to depend upon. 
Whether or not they should be depending on these programs, whether or 
not the Federal Government should be in those areas or not is a matter 
of debate, but if we cut these programs and then we spend the money, 
not on their benefit by bringing down the Federal deficit, which is the 
purpose behind cutting spending supposedly, but instead allow that 
money to be taken from the United States Treasury and sent to Wall 
Street speculators who went to Mexico to receive high returns on their 
investment or the Mexican elite, which is a corrupt elite that have 
betrayed their country time and again, we ourselves will be betraying 
our people in the same way that Mexican elite has been betraying their 
own people.
  This bailout is a crime against our own people, and on top of that, 
it will not work. One can see the nature of this crime by the fact that 
here we are talking about the transferring of billions of dollars, 
American taxpayers' dollars, without so much as a vote of Congress.
  The last time I heard, money was not supposed to be spent in this 
country unless the elected Representatives of the people voted for it. 
This is a travesty. It should and it will be stopped.


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