[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 180 (Tuesday, November 14, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H12323-H12324]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        VOTERS REJECT GOP AGENDA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas, Mr. Gene Green, is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I would like to discuss, and I 
am glad my colleague from Georgia talked about the concern of the 
American people because they hear a lot of different things from the 
different mikes on the floor. Oftentimes the frustration they have and 
some of us even in Congress do not know what to believe.
  But let me just go over some of the poll results because I have 
never, as a Member of Congress or even in earlier life, serving many 
years in the legislature, responded to polls because I think 

[[Page H 12324]]
we need to represent people and not just polls. But the polls in the 
last few weeks are the best things we know, and the last month, of how 
Congress has been doing.
  Two polls were released last week suggesting that the American people 
are increasingly unhappy with Congress and particularly the majority 
Republican Congress. One of them was conducted by the Wall Street 
Journal and NBC and one by the Los Angeles Times reveals that voters 
are rejecting the Republican agenda and their leaders in Congress and 
suggest that the battleground issues like Medicare will play a 
significant role in next year's elections.
  First of all, the Wall Street Journal and the NBC poll said that 59 
percent of American voters disapprove of the job Congress is doing. And 
this is an all-time high for the GOP Congress and places it close to 
our congressional disapproval last year before the 1994 elections.
  The other poll talks about 1 year out from the 1996 elections, the 
Los Angeles Times poll released this Sunday shows Democrats ahead of 
Republicans for the first time since the 1994 elections, 44 percent to 
42 percent. Again, not a landslide, but a year ago Democrats were down 
by 5 percent. Among seniors, a key voting block in 1996, Democrats are 
ahead of Republicans by 18 percentage points, 52 percent to 34 percent. 
And a year ago, Republicans held the edge among seniors 45 to 40 
percent.
  I am glad my colleague from Georgia talked about the need maybe for 
some type of truth meter on our mikes because I know the frustration of 
our constituents all over the country. But I think their frustration is 
being reflected in the polls I just mentioned.

  Plain and simple, our Republican majority has mismanaged our 
financial affairs and our Government. They passed only 5 of the 13 
appropriations bills which fund the Government. And the fiscal year 
started October 1, so we are over 45 days late, well, almost 45 days 
late. The media has been talking about a crisis within our Government. 
There is no real crisis if we had just been able to do our work on time 
by October 1 and passed those bills or to pass a continuing resolution 
so we can get on about our business of passing those bills.
  Now the effort to blame the President for his alleged mismanagement. 
In fact, Republicans controlled both Houses after the 1994 elections, 
and they have the majority votes to be able to pass all 13 bills, 
obviously, prior to October 1 and send them on to the President. The 
President has only vetoed one bill, the legislative appropriations bill 
that I know is ready for him again to be sent back up, but of the two 
bills he signed, the Agriculture Department and one other one, those 
agencies are up and running. Employees are not being furloughed. 
However, it seems like our majority cannot come to an agreement among 
themselves on these funding bills, and that is why we are so late.
  In fact, we saw today in a report that I read just this afternoon 
that our Republican majority was planning this shutdown in July of this 
year. So it just did not happen on the 15th of November. It has been 
planned on because of this showdown and laying off Federal workers or 
furloughing them whether they are paid or not paid. If they are not 
paid, we are hurting a lot of hopefully employees that are dedicated to 
do their jobs, but if we are paying them, then the American people are 
wondering why are we furloughing people and then paying them when we 
finally bring them back. It is like an irresponsible student whose 
assignment, homework is late.
  My wife is a teacher, an algebra teacher. She has told me this 
oftentimes that a student comes in and their homework is late. They are 
going to blame someone else. The dog ate it. I forgot it and left it at 
home, all sorts of reasons.
  Well, the Republicans are blaming the President for not getting their 
work done. The President does not have a vote in this body. To cover up 
that irresponsibility, they are trying to strong-arm the President into 
getting their way, including to force him to raise Medicare premiums. I 
did say raise Medicare premiums, because right now Medicare premiums 
are $46.10 a month, and they would go up under the continuing 
resolution that the President, thank goodness, vetoed to $53.50 a 
month, and either that or shut down government.
  Now we have the shutdown, and it is estimated it may take 2 weeks. 
And presenting the President with a choice like that is irresponsible 
and invites this crisis. Again today, we heard it was reported that as 
of * * * even in July * * *.
  I would hope we would have a bipartisan continuing resolution, one 
that does aim us for a balanced budget but does not do damage to 
Medicare and education.

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