[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 170 (Tuesday, October 31, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H11467]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        WHAT IS THE TRAIN WRECK?

  (Mr. DURBIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam Speaker, we are coming to the close of this 
congressional session, but it is the toughest part. You see, the 
Republicans have passed the Gingrich budget which makes deep cuts in 
Medicare, imposes new taxes on working families and, frankly, President 
Clinton and many of the congressional Democrats have said we find this 
unacceptable.
  So how will Speaker Gingrich force through these changes? What he 
suggested we do is, frankly, to have the so-called train wreck, in 
other words, we do not appropriate money for Federal agencies so they 
have to turn out the lights, and even worse, we would basically not 
extend the debt ceiling of the United States as is necessary.
  What is the debt ceiling? It is basically the full faith and credit 
of this Government behind our financial obligations. Now, there is a 
coalition of 130 Republicans led by a Michigan Republican Member of 
this House who has come up with suggestions to the Treasury Department 
printed in this morning's Washington Times about how they can get by 
even if we do not extend the debt ceiling. Do you know what they 
suggest, these Republicans? They suggest that we do not send the 
refunds to people for their income tax returns next year. That is one 
of their bright ideas.
  The second one is, do not put money in the Social Security trust 
fund. That is the height of irresponsibility.

                          ____________________