[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 179 (Monday, November 13, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H12158-H12159]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        QUIT STALLING ON BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Foley] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to read an editorial from the 
Port St. Lucie News. The editorial says ``Quit Stalling on Budget.''

             [From the Port St. Lucie News, Nov. 13, 1995]

                        Quit Stalling on Budget

       The budget debate now underway is messy and inefficient and 
     may ultimately prove very expensive. It is also irresponsible 
     government and reflects no credit on the White House or the 
     Republican-led Congress.
       Enacting an annual budget is Congress' principal job, one 
     in which this Congress is embarrassingly behind schedule with 
     only two of 13 appropriations bills enacted. The fiscal year 
     the lawmakers are arguing over is already more than one month 
     gone and will likely be a fourth over with by the time a 
     package is passed.
       Congress dug itself into that hole, largely because of deep 
     and continuing disagreements among Republicans newly in the 
     majority.
       That led to the latest obstacle to passing a budget, the 
     provocation of an unnecessary veto fight with Clinton by 
     attempting to use stopgap bills to pass measures--elimination 
     of the Commerce Department, restrictions on lobbying by tax-
     exempt groups, higher Medicare premiums--that should be dealt 
     with elsewhere in the legislative process.
       Despite his belated discovery of presidential veto powers, 
     Clinton has given Congress little sense of where he will 
     stand and fight. He absented himself from the budget 

[[Page H 12159]]
     process the first eight months of the year and hasn't been much of a 
     participant since.
       Clinton may find it personally satisfying--and his campaign 
     advisers politically profitable--to let Congress battle 
     itself bloody over the federal budget. But it is not good 
     government, and it certainly isn't leadership.
       Thanks to this impasse, the government may partially shut 
     down Tuesday, an unnecessary bit of budget brinkmanship that 
     wastes time and money, not to mention the damaging impact on 
     the morale of the 800,000 or so government workers whose 
     livelihoods are being treated so cavalierly.
       Thanks to this same impasse, the government may bump up 
     against the debt limit late next week and go into technical 
     default. While domestic bond-buyers may not mind, seeing this 
     as a promising sign of fiscal austerity to come, foreign 
     bond-buyers may simply see us as deadbeats and drive up the 
     cost of borrowing for years to come.
       To the president and to Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole 
     and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Americans should say what 
     generations of poker players have said when the pot was tied 
     up with pointless bickering: ``Gentlemen, shut up and deal.''

  Ladies and gentlemen, we need to resolve the issue before the 
Congress. We would not run a business like this in America, telling our 
customers that we may or may not be open tomorrow, that we may or may 
not be there to serve their needs. But at the same time, we have heard 
bickering from both sides of the aisle, heated rhetoric, about 
destroying Medicare, about hurting senior citizens.
  I have told this story many times. My grandmother came from Poland. 
She came with a sponsor, a job waiting, a clean bill of health. She 
worked as a maid in a Travel Lodge motel, all to be part of this 
democracy. She depended on Medicare and she depended on Social 
Security. So I am one Member of Congress here to protect that.
  But let us make no mistake about it: The balanced budget is necessary 
to restore fiscal sanity to this Nation. We are borrowing and borrowing 
and borrowing moneys that we simply do not have. Why are Members of 
Congress retiring in droves? Why is everybody saying they want out of 
this job? Because it is no longer fun to go around your community and 
say ``no'' to people.
  For years you have been able to say I will give you a new Post 
Office, I will build you a new bridge, I will fix something in your 
community, I will build a new center for you, all with the taxpayers' 
nickel, all borrowed dollars. They went back year after year and said 
look at me, I am the hero, I have done all of these things for you, you 
must reelect me.
  Now we go to Congress and get elected and say ``no'' to people and 
spending money and ``yes'' to balancing the budget, and people are mad 
at us. But by God, that is fiscal responsibility. It is happening in 
our families. It is required of our businesses. A balanced budget is no 
different than being an American consumer, an American business owner.
  But I do think it is wrong we are holding this Government hostage and 
not meeting at the White House this very hour to solve this problem. I 
do think it is wrong on both sides of the aisle that we are not 
seriously debating the issue as we sit here today. I do not think I 
deserve my paycheck after tomorrow if we are not going to be working. 
Congress should not get paid either. If the employees of the Federal 
Government are going to be told they do not need to be here, I think 
there are maybe 435 nonessential employees right here in this body.
  I think it is time we faced the convictions we have. I think it is 
necessary we balance the budget. I think it is necessary to bring our 
fiscal house in order. But I think it is also necessary that both 
sides, Democrats and Republicans, stop the haranguing, stop the finger 
pointing, stop the name calling, and start debating the very issues 
that will save our fiscal sanity for the years to come.
  I think it is that important. I think it is important for ourselves, 
for the seniors that live in our communities, for our children, and for 
America's future.

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