[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 69 (Thursday, April 27, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5739-S5741]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     THE RESPONSIBILITY OF CONGRESS

  Mr. ASHCROFT. Madam President, the opportunities of this 104th 
Congress are substantial. They are substantial not only because every 
Congress has great opportunity, but they are substantial because we 
have a significant opportunity to change the direction in 
[[Page S5740]] which the country has been going for at least the last 
three decades.
  The elections of November 8 provided a new chemistry for the Congress 
and a new potential for a change in direction. It is a change in 
direction which the people of America sorely need and desperately want. 
It is a change brought about by the popular recognition that over the 
last three decades or so, the Government of the United States has not 
been advocating a set of values necessary for the success and survival 
of this society in the next generation.
  The Government has been validating irresponsibility through the 
Congress' conduct and Congress' programs since at least the midsixties, 
if not before.
  Most of us know that responsibility is the key to a successful 
survival for this society in this century and in the next. If we want 
to sink, we can continue on our current track. But if we want to swim 
and survive, we are going to have to change, and the opportunity of 
this Congress is to change the way that Washington does business.
  Let me just suggest a few ways in which Government has been 
validating irresponsibility. For the past several decades, the modus 
operandi of this Congress has been to spend more than it receives.
  This deficit problem which we have had year after year after year, 
which has been growing larger and larger and larger, has been a way 
that the Government has subtly, if not intentionally, been teaching 
irresponsibility. It is just that simple. When Government tells us what 
is legal and what is illegal, it begins teaching us, and when by its 
conduct it shows that it is not important to pay your debts, that you 
can simply pile up irresponsibly mountains of debt that the next 
generation will have to sustain, that is a way of teaching 
irresponsibility. It is a way of saying to this society that you do not 
have to be responsible. It displays before the entire Nation, before 
every man, woman, and child, a kind of conduct which is destined to 
failure over the long term, designed inevitably to fail and to sink.
  Similarly, for the last 30 years or so, Congress has been passing 
laws and then exempting itself from them. I cannot imagine a less noble 
thing for leadership to do than to enact laws which it says apply to 
everyone else but do not apply to leaders. We know that real leadership 
is to carry the burden forward first, to catch the vision of the noble 
first, to do what is right first; not to send someone else into battle 
first, not to push others into good behavior while we lag behind and 
languish in behavior which is unacceptable.
  The Congress has validated irresponsibility by saying the rest of the 
world has to have a level of responsibility and care but that we could 
exempt ourselves.
  Of course, the Congress was similarly irresponsible when it tried to 
run everyone else's business and not run its own.
  The unfunded mandates of the last three decades are another way that 
Government has validated irresponsibility in the culture. Congress said 
to the people of America that we are not going to be responsible and it 
is not important to be responsible because, rather than take care of 
our own business responsibly, we are going to try with mandates to tell 
State and local governments how to do their business. We will even try 
to tell business how to conduct their business, but we will not do our 
own business that way. We will exempt the Federal operations from many 
of the regulatory impacts to the society, and we will direct the 
spending of State and local governments in spite of the fact that their 
view of the circumstances and understanding of the challenges is far 
superior to our own.
  This character of conduct by the Government over the last three 
decades has literally validated irresponsibility in the society, and it 
is no wonder that the news magazines of late have headlined things like 
shame, or the absence of shame, in society, the absence of 
responsibility, the absence of the internal guideposts to good 
behavior.
  When the biggest, perhaps, teacher of all in America, the Government, 
has by its own behavior been teaching irresponsibility over the last 
three decades, we have really hurt this culture. We have validated 
irresponsibility, not, however, just in the way we conduct our own 
affairs. Government has been validating irresponsibility in the kind of 
programs it promulgates.
  Look at the welfare system. We have not said to this society, on 
welfare, that you will have to be good, that you will have to be moving 
in the right direction in order to have our assistance. We have not 
said that you will have to stop illegitimacy or that you will have to 
start to work or that you will have to be industrious. No, we have not. 
We have just said that no matter how irresponsible you are, we will 
continue to write the check and to pay the bills.
  Or in the criminal law area we have not really been a society of 
responsibility. We have been confused about who the victim was and who 
the criminal was. We have said that the guy pulling the trigger was 
really the victim, that society had not treated him well and he was 
probably excused for pulling the trigger. The person who took the 
bullet probably was encouraged to say: ``I should not have been walking 
in this neighborhood at this time. After all, I probably invited the 
crime or the assault.''
  The truth of the matter is that is the height of irresponsibility. 
Our criminal law system, our programs, have not been oriented toward 
responsibility. They have validated irresponsibility. Our program for 
welfare has not been an encouragement for responsibility but has 
validated irresponsibility.
  For three decades we have been looking at this validation of 
irresponsibility, and now we come to 1995, to the 104th Congress, and 
our chance is to change from a culture of irresponsibility to a culture 
which demands responsibility.
  That is what the first 100 days were about, that is what the next 100 
days are about. And that is why we need to move forward with an agenda 
for the American people to reinvest our society with governmental 
leadership that points toward responsibility.
  Let me just suggest how fundamental those changes are. Instead of 
spending beyond our means, instead of spending without regard to who 
will pay, we are going to start producing balanced budgets; instead of 
validating the irresponsibility of not paying our debts, we are going 
to demand a culture of responsible behavior by paying for what we 
consume; instead of saying that there is a set of laws for the Congress 
and then a bigger and broader set of laws for the citizenry, we are 
going to say, no, we want to be responsible.
  With the Congressional Accountability Act, the first thing we did was 
to pass laws that said we would live under the same laws under which 
the citizens of America live. That pushes us toward a culture of 
responsibility. Instead of telling other governmental entities and 
jurisdictions how to consume their resources and deploy them with 
unfunded mandates, we have said we will stop doing that; we will start 
acting responsibly.
  The real challenge for us is to move from a culture of 
irresponsibility to a culture of responsibility and for Government to 
take the lead.
  Look at what is happening in the welfare area, and this is why it 
desperately needs reform. Instead of saying to people, no matter how 
irresponsible you are, we will promote that and validate it and as a 
matter of fact we will fund it--instead of doing that, we are going to 
say, no, you have to behave in certain ways; you have to improve your 
performance; you have to work; you have to treat your children with 
dignity and give them a chance to break the cycle of dependency and 
poverty. That is responsibility, and we are moving in that direction.
  I submit to you that in the area of the criminal law, we will have a 
move toward responsibility. We will deny the culture of 
irresponsibility, and we will demand the culture of responsibility. And 
that is what Government should do. It should set an example. It should 
teach with its conduct and with the programs that it promulgates. It 
should promote responsibility. And that is why the first 100 days were 
important, 100 days that began this session, and that is why the rest 
of this session is of monumental importance.
  It is very important that we carry through on this change from 
validating irresponsibility, which is the past, to promoting 
responsibility and demanding accountability, which is the future.
  [[Page S5741]] So we must again visit the balanced budget question. 
We must move forward with a real balanced budget to respond to the 
demand of the people that we institute a culture, at least a 
governmental culture of responsibility that will set an example for 
this society. We must move forward on the reforms which are before us. 
We cannot stop now. We must continue to address the agenda of the 
American people.
  This is the great opportunity of this Congress, that we change the 
way Washington does business. And by changing the way Washington does 
business, we signal to America that there is a new demand for 
accountability and responsibility in this society: We no longer spend 
money we do not have; we no longer fail to live under the laws which we 
pass; we no longer try to direct the activities of other governmental 
entities. No, our conduct will be responsible instead of 
irresponsible--pay our debts, live under the laws we pass. Yes, we will 
stop telling governments much better prepared to make decisions than we 
are how those decisions ought to be made. All of those things are 
included in the monumental changes sweeping through the Congress. But 
the sweeping through is not complete. Sweeping through is a process, 
and it is a process which we must continue, which we must extend, which 
we must, as a matter of fact, complete. We must have the discipline and 
the determination to carry through on these programs.
  We are in the midst of a debate on the question of product liability. 
The question is whether companies will be held responsible for things 
they really had nothing to do with, whether rental car companies that 
had nothing but ownership of a car which was stolen or otherwise 
wrongfully taken will be held accountable for millions of dollars of 
damage done with the car.
  We have a tremendous energy that is pent up, a momentum in the 
culture of irresponsibility, and it is not easy for us to stop the 
spending, to stop the conduct which has promoted and validated 
irresponsibility for the last several decades. It is something on which 
we have made a great start and from which we should not turn. It is a 
task which we must continue.
  So as we review, looking back, the significant achievements of the 
first 100 days, let us never forsake the potentials of the next 100 
days. I think we have reached a threshold, a tipping point. We have 
reached an opportunity to continue to institute as a regular means of 
operation this culture of responsibility in Government. Let us make 
sure that in these next 100 days we do not turn back; that we continue 
to move forward on the agenda of the American people.
  Mr. THURMOND addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina.
  (The remarks of Mr. Thurmond pertaining to the introduction of S. 727 
and S. 728 are located in today's Record under ``Statements on 
Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
  (The remarks of Mr. Lott and Mr. Baucus pertaining to the 
introduction of S. 729 are located in today's Record under ``Statements 
on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. PRYOR addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Thomas). Under the previous order, the 
Senator from Arkansas is recognized to speak for up to 10 minutes.
  Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, I thank the Chair for recognizing me.

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