[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 172 (Thursday, November 2, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H11739-H11740]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HOLD THE CHILDREN HARMLESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I would like to pick up a bit where the 
gentlewoman from Texas left off, because we are going to hear so much 
about the budget and reconciliation and balancing the budget, and I do 
not know about anyone else, but when I talk about this at home, folks' 
eyes glaze over. They hate their own budgets, so why should they want 
to listen to what is going on here.
  Let me talk just a bit about why there is so much passion, why there 
is not an agreement, and why we have certain Members willing to take 
the full faith and credit of this great Nation and hold it hostage, so 
that they can get their way on the budget.
  Mr. Speaker, if we took a kitchen table in America and sat everyone 

[[Page H 11740]]

around it and you were trying to do a family budget, and let us assume 
you have to cut spending, as we have to cut it in this body. Here is 
the big difference between the two sides, here is the big difference: 
We do not want to take money from the children in Head Start education 
and college, we do not want to do that, and we do not want to take 
grandma and grandpa's money sitting at that table so we can send 
$20,000 to the rich uncle who lives in Chicago that makes half a 
million dollars. That is what this budget fight is about.
  Now, they are going to say, oh, but the rich uncle who lives in 
Chicago is the guy who creates the jobs, so he has to get the money. 
But that is bottom line what this is about.
  We are saying, this is not the time to send a present to the rich 
uncle. I think at every kitchen table in America when times are tough 
you try to hold the children harmless so they can get their education, 
they can get their nutrition in the school lunch program, and they have 
a chance to go to college, because they are the future. You try as long 
as possible and as hard as possible to hold the seniors harmless, 
because they have not caused this. But this is just like your budget, 
only bigger, by a magnitude of gazillions of dollars, and the thing is, 
who pays?
  The gentleman from New York is going to have a very eloquent session 
on this, talking about education. People do not know how badly we have 
hurt education. In my State alone, the estimate for the increase of 9th 
to 12th graders in the next few years is almost 28 percent. Twenty-
eight percent more kids are going to be hitting those senior high 
schools. So the Federal Government is backing away from all sorts of 
programs, plus it zeroed out summer jobs for those kids, and it did all 
sorts of other things that is going to impact their future.
  So this is what it is about. People know they cannot get enough votes 
here to override a veto, so they have to take this debt ceiling thing, 
the thing that guarantees our money, the thing that guarantees the 
bonds of this Nation, the thing that guarantees the full faith and 
credit of this Nation, and hold it hostage and say, we will not lift 
the ceiling unless you let us have our way so we can take money from 
the little kids and money from grandma and grandpa and send it to the 
rich uncle in Chicago. Hey, if you think that is a good plan, you have 
to be really happy, that is what is going on. But when you get behind 
everything else, that is exactly what is happening here. So try and 
keep that in mind.
  I must also say, this being the 75th anniversary of women having had 
the right to vote, this has been a very hard week for me in this body. 
We have seen all sorts of things change, and you would wonder if women 
could vote at all.

  We have seen charts being allowed on this floor that were not 
medically certified, that were inaccurate, that should never have been 
here and that were never here before, but suddenly the rules are going 
to allow that. We have seen the rules expanded for the other side so 
that they can talk; we have seen women's health and women's lives being 
taken away as a reason for doctors to treat them. Is that not amazing?
  So I really hope that the women of America start waking up, and the 
men too, that are really understanding this.
  We heard the debate about whether the nonprofits should be able to 
lobby here. Well, I want to tell you, let me tell you who is lobbying 
here, and that is the military industrial complex. That is why you have 
$8 billion worth of B-2 bombers that nobody wants and all sorts of add-
ons to the defense bill. They can do it and they are doing it with 100 
percent Federal money, because a lot of them work in companies where 
all their money is Federal money. Nobody wants to turn them off. But 
they are so afraid that the senior citizens may come in here and talk 
about Medicare cuts or the Girl Scouts might come and talk about what 
happens if they lose some of the money in jobs programs for the summer, 
or the schools and teachers come in and talk about Head Start or what 
happens if we cut back, that those people must be gagged.
  Mr. GUNDERSON. Mr. Chairman, reserving the right to object.
  The CHAIRMAN. The Chair can only entertain an even-handed request.
  The gentleman from California has 3 minutes remaining of his time. If 
there is an extension of that time, the time must be equal on each 
side.
  The gentleman from California has 3 minutes remaining.
  Mr. DIXON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from 
Missouri [Mr. Clay].

                              {time}  1530

  So we gag them. But when I offer my amendment to say, OK, if you are 
going to gag them, we ought to gag the defense contractors, no, we do 
not do that.
  These are not American priorities that I know unless this is a 
different America than the one I know. I hope we find some way to break 
through the clutter and noise and try to bring to people what these 
real issues are, and people get engaged in this.
  Government is not the hokey-pokey. You cannot just put your hand in 
or your foot in. You have got to put your whole self in, understand the 
issues, and start working to make a difference or you are going to be 
awakened in a couple of years and wonder what happened.

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