[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 186 (Monday, November 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H13353]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          BALANCING THE BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Scarborough] is recognized 
during morning business for 3 minutes.
  Mr. SCARBOROUGH. Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on what the 
gentlewoman from North Carolina said.
  It is a good day in America. We can work together. There are 48 
Democrats who last week said that it was important that we balance the 
budget, and that we balance the budget using true and accurate numbers. 
I mean, let us face it, in Washington, DC, no one side has the high 
ground on smoke and mirrors.
  We saw in the early 1980's that it was the Republicans and a 
Republican administration that played with rosy scenarios and numbers. 
We have seen it throughout the 1980's. We have also now seen it in the 
1990's that we have a Democratic administration that is awfully nervous 
about using real numbers. But the fact of the matter is, we can work 
together.
  Unfortunately, this past weekend I heard some people talking about 
how the Democratic Party worked hard through the weekend in the grand 
tradition of FDR and Truman. I will tell you what I heard was a lot of 
demagoging on the floor. I heard Newt Gingrich compared to Bull Conner 
in Birmingham, AL. And of course those of you who know your history and 
remember, Bull Conner was the police chief who sicced dogs on 
minorities in Birmingham to eat them alive and turned water hoses on 
minorities to enforce segregation. That is not helpful.
  It is not helpful when extremists on the other side of the aisle 
refer to Republicans as Nazis for wanting to balance the budget. We 
have to get beyond that. We have got to get beyond the demagoguery on 
Medicare.
  The Washington Post had several articles and editorials this past 
week calling the liberals' hand on what I, and I hate to say it, but 
just on, if not lying, on blatantly misrepresenting Republicans' plans 
on Medicare.
  This past weekend, the Washington Post wrote, though many of 
President Clinton's advisors think the GOP's premium proposal on 
Medicare is sensible and it differs little from his own plan, the 
President fired sound bites from the Oval Office daily, taking the low 
road in ways that only Washington pundits could recast as standing 
tall.
  As polls showed, it worked. The Washington Post on November 15 wrote 
that the Democrats have been prospecting harder for votes among the 
elderly and against the Republican proposal than they have for saving 
the needed money to bring the deficit down. Of course last week's 
Washington Post editorial wrote that the Democrats, led by the 
President, chose instead to project themselves as Medicare's great 
protectors. They have shamelessly used the issue, demagogued on it, 
because they think that is where the votes are and it is the way around 
the Republican proposals generally.
  The President was still doing it this week. A Republican proposal to 
increase Medicare premiums was one of the reasons he alleged to veto 
and shut down the Government. Never mind that he himself and his own 
budget would countenance this similar increase.
  We have said it before and it gets more serious now. If the Democrats 
play the Medicare card to win, they will have set back for years for 
the worst of political reasons the very cause for rational government 
on whose behalf they profess to be behaving.
  So let us get real, let us talk reality, talk real numbers. The fact 
of the matter is we are protecting, preserving Medicare for future 
generations, and more importantly, we have done what this Government 
has not done in a generation. We put forward a plan to balance the 
budget. And I hope more Democrats come on board.

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