[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 177 (Thursday, November 9, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H12066-H12067]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                AN EXPLANATION OF CONGRESS' PREDICAMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Durbin] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. Speaker, those who have followed the congressional 
debate today may be in a quandary trying to figure out exactly what is 
going on on Capitol Hill. Let me try to set the record straight, so 
that there is an understanding about the political dynamic and what it 
means to every American family.
  Mr. Speaker, we are in the process now of trying to come up with a 
budget for this fiscal year for the Federal Government. The fiscal year 
actually started October 1. There was a failure of the Republican 
leadership to pass appropriation bills on time to continue the business 
of the Federal Government. As a consequence, they have passed what is 
known as a continuing resolution which just basically keeps the 
agencies in business on a short-term basis.
  There is a second item known as a debt ceiling, which basically gives 
authority to the Federal Treasury to continue to borrow money so that 
we can extend the full faith and credit of the United States and not 
default on our obligations. That debt ceiling limit should have been 
passed for a long period of time several weeks ago, but we have failed 
under the Republican leadership to do that either, and so now we are at 
an impasse.
  The President of the United States has said that he will sign a bill 
which will keep the agencies of Government in business. He will sign a 
debt ceiling bill so that the United States does not default on its 
debt. But my Republican colleagues have decided to make this more 
interesting from a political point of view. They will not send the 
President a simple bill that meets our obligation. Instead they keep 
loading up every bill with their political favorites.
  Mr. Speaker, there are special interest groups roaming all over the 
corridors on Capitol Hill, each of which wants another ornament for his 
Christmas tree, and so they find these bills that come along and they 
stick on a series of amendments, some of them very serious in tone, 
others just designed to keep special interest groups very happy.
  The Republicans are going to send these bills to the President, and 
he has already told them that he is going to veto them. This leads to 
the so-called train wreck, the gridlock, the crisis which Speaker 
Gingrich is using as part of his strategy to pressure the President of 
the United States.
  Mr. Speaker, what is sad about this is that none of us, Democrats or 
Republicans, or Independents for that matter, were sent to Washington 
to engage in gridlock. We were not sent here to fail, to create 
problems, to close down Government agencies so people 

[[Page H 12067]]
seeking Social Security checks or veterans checks or small business 
loans will not have anybody to work with.
  We were not sent here to default on the debt of the Nation for the 
first time in our history. We were sent here to meet our obligations on 
a bipartisan basis and really go back home and meet with our 
constituents. Instead, we are spending late night hours and long, 
tortuous debates because of this political tangle.
  Part of it has to do with the Republican plan to balance the budget. 
Most of us favor balancing the budget, but the Republican approach goes 
far beyond balancing the budget. What they are calling for is a $270 
billion cut in Medicare, a cut in a program that is totally 
unnecessary. They are savaging Medicare far more than they have to in 
order to come up with extra funds. For what purpose? Not do reduce the 
national debt, but to create tax breaks. You see the Republican theory 
from time immemorial is a trickle-down theory. They have always 
believed that if you make the rich rich enough, it will somehow help 
working families. Most of us know that is not true. Working families 
know it for sure.

  We are also concerned about cuts in education. I am here today 
standing on the floor of this hall of the U.S. House of Representatives 
because this Federal Government, over 30 years ago, loaned me the money 
to go to college. If they had not loaned it to me, I am not sure what I 
would be today.
  My story is repeated millions of times over, and yet the Republicans 
believe we need to cut over $10 billion out of college student loans as 
part of balancing the budget.
  Frankly, if we give up on education, if we give up on educating the 
kids of working families, we are giving up on our future. What we need 
now is a more responsible, bipartisan, commonsense approach. We have 
got to stop this massive cut of Medicare to provide a tax break for the 
wealthy. We have got to stop savaging the education programs that are 
so important to our children. We have got to stop playing political 
games with the operations of the Federal Government and with our 
Nation's national debt.
  Unfortunately, the next several days are not going to be very pretty. 
I wish Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle would adopt my 
simple proposal: No budget, no pay. If the Members of Congress cannot 
meet their responsibility to keep the agencies of the Federal 
Government in operation and not to default on our national obligations 
and debt, we should not be paid for it. We ought to basically say if we 
are going to send the Federal employees home without pay, Members of 
Congress ought do without a pay check.
  Mr. Speaker, I have offered it three times and lost three times. I 
wrote a letter to Speaker Gingrich and asked him to make it in order. 
Unfortunately, there must have been a fire in his mailbox. He has not 
gotten back to me.
  The concerns that the American people have about the future are 
concerns that we share in Congress. We do not shut down Federal 
Agencies and then keep drawing congressional paychecks. That suggests 
to me the kind of arrogance which people do not want in their elected 
representatives.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope those who follow this debate will remember the 
simple challenge that is ahead of us. We can balance the budget if we 
get rid of the tax cuts and the onerous cuts in Medicare, we can make 
sure that we have a bright future if we stick with investments in 
education, and we can make certain that this Government stays in 
business doing its business if we stop the political shenanigans and 
get down to the real business of functioning on a bipartisan, 
commonsense basis.

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