[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 179 (Monday, November 13, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S16991-S16993]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         POISED FOR A SHUTDOWN

  Mrs. BOXER. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I take to the floor 
late this evening, and I know there is other business that will be 
coming before the body, to talk about where we are as a country at this 
point when everyone seems to be poised for a shutdown, representing the 
largest State in the Union where, I daresay, Senator Feinstein and I 
have more people who will be impacted by this shutdown than any other 
State in the Union. It is of grave concern to me. I believe the time 
has come for us to work together and keep this Government functioning. 
I believe if we cannot do that, then we are not doing our jobs.
  The time has come for the Republican Congress to admit to something 
they do not want to admit to, and that is the occupant of the White 
House happens to be a Democrat. There is a Democrat in the White House, 
a Democrat who has said in every possible way that we can make 
bipartisan progress on the budget if Republicans moderate their extreme 
cuts in four areas: Medicare is one area; Medicaid is the second; 
education is the third; and environment is the fourth. And on the tax 
break side, that the Republican Congress not give huge tax breaks to 
the wealthiest to pay for those mean-spirited cuts.
  Those are the main areas of disagreement: Medicare, Medicaid, 
environment and education and huge tax breaks for the wealthiest among 
us.
  There are other smaller areas of disagreement, but those are the 
major ones. When you stop and think about the thousands of things that 
we deal with in this budget, if it can come down to four or five areas, 
I think there is room for us to work together. I do not think it is 
unreasonable for the President to simply ask for moderation on four 
areas crucial to all Americans, and I do not believe that the majority 
of Americans think that President Clinton is being unreasonable.
  Why do I say that? Because it is clear, when you take $270 billion 
out of Medicare, you are hurting this very important and popular 
program. And you know that what Speaker Gingrich said is true, they 
cannot kill it outright, but this will allow it to ``wither on the 
vine.''
  ``Wither on the vine,'' the very words of Speaker Gingrich. And you 
know something, he cannot get out of it. That is what he said. 

[[Page S 16992]]

  So the Republicans will allow Medicare--indeed, that is their plan--
allow it to ``wither on the vine'' and then use the money to pay off 
those who earn over $350,000 a year. They will get $5,600 a year in tax 
breaks.
  I listened to the chairman of the Budget Committee--I am on the 
Budget Committee, I serve there with great pride--when Senator Kennedy 
of Massachusetts asked a direct question to the chairman of the Budget 
Committee. The answer came back, and I do give Chairman Domenici credit 
for this. He said, basically, yes to the question, ``Didn't you have to 
cut Medicare $270 billion to make room for your tax cut?''
  Of course he did. Of course he did. That was in the budget itself. It 
said there has to be enough cuts to be able to afford those tax breaks.
  It is symmetry, my friends, and very clear: $245 billion in tax cuts 
for the wealthiest; $270 billion cuts in Medicare. That is extreme. The 
Republicans go too far.
  I think the President is being very reasonable and very rational and 
very correct in suggesting that they moderate those cuts, that they not 
harm Medicare, that they not cut Medicaid by $182 billion.
  Who uses Medicaid? The disabled, the elderly in nursing homes. They 
still, with all the hoopla, are going to change the national standards 
for nursing homes. Their latest ploy is to have national standards that 
the States will enforce. Wonderful. We know what happened when the 
States were in charge of nursing homes. We remember those days.
  I compliment my friend, Senator Pryor, for his work on this issue. We 
are not going to go back to the days where seniors were abused, 
drugged, had bedsores or were given scalding baths. That is what 
happened in the 1980's.
  I have to say when I hear colleagues on the other side say, ``Well, 
those Democrats just do not want change,'' yes, we want change but we 
want good change. We want change that is good for the country, that 
moves us forward, that keeps our values.
  Yes, we have to look more carefully at the way we spend our dollars. 
Yes, we have to balance the budget. But it is a question of how you do 
it and the President is right to stand firm. I hope he will continue to 
stand firm because the American people support that.
  Change in and of itself is not necessarily good. It is like if you 
have a teenage child. I have had a couple of them. They are past that 
stage. This is very good. When they were young and I said, ``You have 
to do better, you have to work harder''--``Yes, I will change.''
  If they change for the better that is great, but if they came home 
and said, ``Mom I changed. I joined a gang,'' that would be a bad 
change.
  When you repeal nursing home standards, that is a bad change. When 
you hurt seniors in Medicare, that is a bad change. When you cut so 
deeply into education and student loans that you really in essence say 
to our young people they are not going to have opportunity, that is a 
bad change. We should stand for good change.
  We protect the pensions of our workers. This Republican budget goes 
after the pensions, allows them to be raided. That is a bad change.
  This is not a revolution, this Republican revolution, that Americans 
can really embrace, because it is an America that loses its values, 
hope, opportunity, fairness. That is what I think we try to stand for 
on our side of the aisle. That is the kind of budget that we will 
support--yes, one that moves us toward balance.
  How do you get there is the question. I think what is happening is 
that my colleagues on the Republican side want to blackmail our 
President and send him a debt extension, force him to sign it while at 
the same time a provision in there would tie his hands in future debt 
crises. That is not what we need for the strongest, greatest country in 
the world.
  I used to be a stockbroker in another lifetime, and every time the 
President sneezed, the market would go down. People were worried. 
Imagine what it would be like if a President signed a bill that 
essentially tied his hands behind his back so he could not act in a 
crisis, to stand strong for the full faith and credit of the United 
States of America. That would be a terrible thing for him to do, and he 
is not going to be blackmailed into doing it. God bless him for that 
and give him courage and give him strength for that.
  Imagine, these short-term bills having all this extraneous matter--
raising Medicare premiums. The Republicans cannot even wait for the 
reconciliation bill, they are going to put it in this short-term bill. 
Raising premiums instead of looking at Medicare as a whole unit and 
bringing in the doctor piece and bringing in the waste, fraud, and 
abuse piece, as Senator Kennedy said, and the hospital piece, and 
making sure the poor seniors are protected.
  Why should the President sign a bill when he is up against the wall 
and being blackmailed into it? The President has every right to reject 
this. He should.
  I am here to say that right now if the Republicans in this U.S. 
Senate wanted to, they could sit down with us Democrats. We could send 
a clean debt extension to the President, a clean continuing 
appropriations to the President, absent all this extraneous matter.
  One of them even weakens environmental laws, threatening public 
health and safety. It is an outrage.
  We do not have to shut down this Government and make people feel 
concerned if they want to apply for veterans' benefits or Social 
Security benefits that the door will be closed. It is not necessary to 
do that.
  Send the President a clean extension of the debt. Send the President 
a clean continuing resolution. We have many battles that we have to 
fight but we do not have to fight it on this short-term bill.
  I am only going to go for another 2 or 3 minutes but I really need to 
say that this crisis is a manufactured crisis. There is no reason for 
it to be happening. It is just an attempt by this Republican Congress 
to sneak things through here that they know they cannot get through in 
the light of day. They do not want to vote to raise Medicare premiums, 
so they stick it in on this debt extension or on the continuing 
resolution. On the debt extension they weaken the environmental laws. 
They are radical plans and their only hope of success is to slip it 
through.
  We should not be playing a game here about who is more macho, Newt 
Gingrich or President Clinton. Frankly, I do not care. I do not care 
about that. What I care about is that my country functions, that my 
country operates, that we are not sending a signal to foreign countries 
that there is some problem here with us doing our work.
  The full faith and credit of the greatest Nation on Earth is at 
stake, so we should not play the high noon games, the macho games, and 
the football games. We have a job to do. Keep the bills clean.
  I also would like to take this opportunity to note that while the 
Senate voted unanimously to dock our pay if any part of the Government 
shuts down, the House of Representatives refused to do it. Speaker 
Gingrich will not even meet with me and Congressman Durbin in order to 
discuss this matter.
  Here we have a situation where Federal employees who work very hard 
are being disrupted, their families are frightened, and yet because 
Speaker Gingrich does not want to act on this, Members of Congress will 
get their pay. Wonderful signal. Wonderful signal. Play games with the 
faith and credit of the United States of America, but we get our pay.
  I hope that Congressman Durbin will be able to get his bill offered 
over on that side under suspension of the rules. We passed it here 
unanimously with Senators Daschle and Dole going on my amendment.
  I find it bizarre, just bizarre, that Speaker Gingrich is very 
willing to give out the pain to the country but is protecting himself 
and his colleagues from any pain. It is wrong.
  Mr. President, stand firm. You are right in what you are doing. Let 
us pass these short-term bills without extraneous amendments. Take the 
four or five areas of disagreement in the budget and hammer out 
agreements. This Congress has only sent the President 5 appropriation 
bills out of 13. They have not even sent the reconciliation bill over 
to him yet, and they are playing games with these short-term bills.

  Get your work done. Send it to the President. He will veto it, 
because it 

[[Page S 16993]]
has hurtful cuts in education, environment, Medicare and Medicaid, and 
for its attack on working people and cozy tax breaks to the wealthiest 
and its raid on workers' pensions.
  Send it to the President. Our founders envisioned that when there is 
a split in values, there will be a veto. Then there will be a veto 
override. And, if that fails, we will sit down and we will solve the 
problems before us.
  Our values are clashing. In many ways, it is important for America to 
understand that. This is not about some small matters. This is about 
the heart and soul of America. Do we invest in our students? Do we care 
about our seniors? Do we care about our children? Do we value them? Do 
we want to balance the budget, but do it in a way that is humane and 
compassionate and fair and just? Or do we want to slash and burn and 
use those savings to give the wealthiest among us thousands of dollars 
every year?
  I hope the answer to that is no. I think the answer to that is no. 
And when the President stands tall and vetoes this bill, we will move 
the debate forward. But that is a battle we do not have to have on the 
short-term legislation.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.
  Mrs. BOXER. I ask for 30 additional seconds.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. BOXER. In closing, strip these short-term bills of extraneous 
material and let us govern.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  Mr. KERRY. Will the Senator withhold?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
  The Senator will withhold.

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