[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 183 (Friday, November 17, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H13286-H13287]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            BALANCING THE BUDGET IS NOT A POPULARITY CONTEST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Wamp] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WAMP. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio.
  Mr. HOKE. I appreciate that. I just wanted to say to the gentleman 
from Texas [Mr. Bentsen] that, you know, all this talk about working, 
and we could work, and we should have this resolution to work. The fact 
is this House agreed, we agreed, on a continuing resolution that is 
clean. We did that. We make it clean, and we voted on it. 

[[Page H 13287]]

  You may have even voted for it, Mr. Bentsen. Forth-eight of your 
colleagues did.
  Mr. WAMP. Reclaiming my time, I am happy to yield to the gentleman 
from Pennsylvania [Mr. Walker].
  Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, I was fascinated to hear a minute ago when 
we heard about interest rates rise. Interest rates are rising because 
we have the Secretary of the Treasury that is down looting the pension 
funds of the country, and guess what? The markets are beginning to 
respond to the looting action taking place by the Secretary of the 
Treasury. I mean it is absolutely fascinating to hear these people come 
out defending what is going on in the administration when what we have 
is a looting of the retirement funds--
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the gentleman would yield for 1 
moment, and I would just point out that the stock market is now--
  Mr. WAMP. Mr. Hoke, let me reclaim my time and make my point, if I 
could, please.
  You know, this has been a long and difficult year. It has been 11 
months nearly now, and a lot of people are tired in this Chamber, and I 
can tell it on the floor today, and I can tell it with people's 
tempers, and what I would just respectfully come and say to our Members 
from both sides of the aisle is try not to be so disingenuous with your 
comments and your positions. This business of coming to the floor 
tonight and saying we should somehow stay on Sunday when on Sunday 
there is probably not going to be anything to vote on.
  Let me tell you that beginning in 1991 I began running for the U.S. 
Congress, and I decided early on that I was not going to sacrifice my 
commitment to my wife and my children by entering the public arena, and 
I said I will not campaign, I will not do anything on Sunday, except go 
to my church, worship the God that I serve, and spend that day every 
week with my family, with my wife and my children, and I have not 
backed down on that commitment in 4 years.

  In the first race the incumbent said we will debate you if you want 
to debate. She had a tremendous advantage. She said we will debate you 
on Sunday night, and I turned down that network-televised debate 
because I was not going to back down on a commitment that I made to 
live a balanced life of mind, body, and spirit, and I think it is very 
disingenuous for Members to down here and talk about us staying. We are 
staying tomorrow, we are staying Saturday.
  Mr. Speaker, I have been here. I left home at 6:30 Monday morning, 
and we are staying Saturday. We are staying Saturday, and we are 
working, and we are going to go home for one day so I can go to my 
church with my children and spend a day with my family that I love.
  There is a problem with the continuing resolution, there is a problem 
here, we all know it. All week long we have heard about policy and 
popularity. Well, let me just say this, please. It is popular, and it 
has been popular for years, to overpromise and overspend, and even if 
it is not popular today to do what we have got to do to save this 
country from the train wreck that we are destined to have if we do not 
turn around, even if it is unpopular, I am willing to do it, and many 
of my colleagues are willing to do it.
  This should not be a popularity contest. This country has got to quit 
worrying about polls, and how they run them, and what the results are.
  Thankfully my district did respond this week. It was four to one all 
week in favor of what we are doing in standing tough, standing firm, on 
a balanced budget. One day it was six to one.
  But what really bothers me is that we are the only generation in the 
history of this great Nation that is going to leave this place in worse 
shape than we found it. I would like to retire when I am 75 or 80 years 
old, and I would like to sit there with my grandkids and know that we 
did the right thing in 1995, that we stood in the gap for their future, 
that we made some tough decisions, that we did not back down when it 
all of a sudden got a little hot, like they done since 1969, said they 
were going to do it, got there, and we had a little pressure, and they 
had to back away from it, and the conservative Democrats over here, my 
hats are off to you. Forty-eight of you joined me, defected from 
President Clinton's commitment not to balance the budget, and joined 
us, and there are more every hour coming over. Why? Because it only 
makes sense.

  Mr. Speaker, we have a reasonable proposal. We have stripped it down 
to the bare essentials of the 7-year balanced budget. It is time to 
move. It is time to do it. If not now, when? If not now, when are we 
going to do it?
  I want to stay until the budget is balanced; that is what I came here 
for. We have got to take a step and come forward. I did not come here 
to play games. This is not a Republican-Democrat thing; it is a liberal 
and conservative thing, and we need to come together.

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