[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 200 (Friday, December 15, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S18772-S18773]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  Mrs. BOXER. I thank the majority leader. It has been a very difficult 
day. It is very late. I will not go on at length.
  I just feel we are fortunate here, as Members of the U.S. Senate, 
even though we are working very long and hard, and it is very 
stressful, at least we know we are going to get our paycheck. But, 
unfortunately there are those very hard-working families tonight who 
really do not know if they will get their paychecks. About 350,000 
families are adversely impacted because tonight the Congress was not 
able to pass a continuing resolution to send a signal to the entire 
country that we can keep this Government operating.
  I do not want it to be lost, as we end here this evening. I do not 
want the people out there to think that they are forgotten. I also do 
not want people to think that who are veterans who will not get their 
services, perhaps, as readily as they should come Monday, or people who 
need passports, or people who want to go to our parks. We certainly 
know tomorrow they will be inconvenienced for no good reason.
  It may well be that Democrats and Republicans cannot come together on 
a long-term, 7-year balanced budget. It may be that we will never be 
able to do that. I, for one, hope that we can and think that we can. I, 
for one, believe there are a few key areas where we could come together 
and get that balanced budget.
  But surely we could come together to keep this Government operational 
for another week? I do not know what is happening here, but it seems to 
me, with all the anger I have seen on the Senate floor, we ought to put 
that aside for 10 minutes and pass a clean continuing resolution as our 
Democratic leader recommended. Yes, we have those outstanding debates. 
Yes, we will have to discuss them and resolve them. But we can keep 
this Government going instead of acting like little children who do not 
get their way and marching outside of the room and objecting when there 
is a very simple, straightforward suggestion that we can keep things 
going until--even Monday or Tuesday.
  But, no, we are not going to do that. So, constituents of mine and 
others across this country who work for the Federal Government, like 
Ken Takada, a veterans claim examiner in Los Angeles are very 
concerned. He is not independently wealthy. He lives from paycheck to 
paycheck like most of us in America do. He could default on his student 
loans if he misses a paycheck. The day the Government shuts down, Ken 
has told us, he is going to have to go to the unemployment office and 
apply for benefits to keep his life going. He does not want to be on 
unemployment. He wants to work. And the veterans of southern 
California, who depend on him to handle their cases, want him to be at 
his post at the Federal building in Los Angeles.
  Then there is Larry Drake and his wife, Joan. Larry works for the 
Bureau of Labor Statistics and Joan works at the Public Health 
Services. If the Government shuts down, both will be furloughed. Their 
family will loose 100 percent of its income. We do not know if they 
will get their back pay; perhaps they might, perhaps they might not. 
But what kind of way is that for us to act? We have a responsibility to 
the workers and to those that they serve. All we had to do is say 
``aye'' to the Democratic leader when he said, ``Put aside our 
problems. Let us keep the Government going at least until next week.'' 
Simple, straightforward, easy thing to do.
  But, no, we cannot get it done.
  I heard the majority leader over in the House, Mr. Armey, 
Representative Armey from Texas, who is the Republican majority leader 
over there, say, ``Well, we didn't get a good enough budget from the 
President. We got a meager budget. Therefore we are not going to send 
over a clean debt extension.'' That is a little bit like a guard in a 
prison camp. ``You haven't behaved. We are not going to give you your 
bread and water.''
  The fact is, these appropriations bills have not been done and there 
is a very easy way to handle it. Wrap them in a continuing resolution. 
But, oh, no. The Republican leaders over in the House--and presumably 
we went along with it on this side, I am sad to say--they did not like 
what they got so they are not sending over a clean extension.
  I would assume if the House did it, the Senate would have gone along.
  Well, if we furlough Larry Drake and his wife Joan, what are they 
going to do? A two-income family and they are going to lose their 
income, either temporarily or for a longer time.
  Then there is Ray Montgomery who works for the Census Bureau in Los 
Angeles. He is classified, even though he works for 40 hours a week, as 
an intermittent employee, so he will not get his back pay at all.
  Ray told my office he is so worried about a second shutdown that he 
has not yet bought any Christmas presents for his family, and if the 
Government shuts down there will not be any presents at all. And Ray 
wrote to me, ``For Heavens sakes, I am one paycheck away from being 
homeless. I work hard to be a credit to my country. I try to be a good 
representative of Government employees to the American people.''
  I just think it is a shameless situation. It is not necessary that we 
shut this Government down. We have a legitimate disagreement over how 
to balance the budget in 7 years. That is legitimate. It is a big 
problem. I am on the Budget Committee. I voted for two balanced 
budgets, one by Bill Bradley, one by Kent Conrad. I am proud to have 
done it because it got to a balanced budget without hurting Medicare, 
Medicaid, without giving these outrageous tax breaks to the wealthiest 
who do not need them right now. For God sakes, put off the tax breaks 
until we have really balanced the budget. This is a phantom 
celebration. Give a tax break to the wealthy. People who earn $350,000 
a year are going to get back almost $8,500 a year.
  I mean really, while we cut Medicare and Medicaid and education and 
the environment and veterans, cops on the beat? Where are our values?
  I say to my friend from Minnesota, Senator Grams is a very effective 
speaker. He says, when we say, on our side of the aisle, ``Where are 
our values?'' that the only value that is important--and I am 
paraphrasing him--is to balance the budget.
  It is certainly important to balance the budget. Do you know the last 
time we had a surplus in this country was under Lyndon Johnson? Do you 
know the first President to get the deficit down 3 years in a row? 
Guess. Bill Clinton--the first one. George Bush and Ronald Reagan added 
more to the debt than all the Presidents from George Washington to 
Jimmy Carter. So Democratic Presidents take a back seat to no one in 
fiscal responsibility--no one. We are the ones who have a better 
record.
  I have to say, there is a lot of anger on this floor. There is anger 
toward the 

[[Page S18773]]
President. I have not seen such anger. I serve on that special 
committee that is looking into the Whitewater. The Presiding Officer 
and I sit there. God, there is anger toward that President. And the 
President does say he wants a balanced budget that is consistent with 
our values.
  What are those values? I will not take too long to go into them 
because I know the hour is late. Respect for our elderly--pretty 
important value. I learned that as a child. So why would you sock it to 
Medicare and Medicaid and people in nursing homes, if you believe that 
we should respect our elderly? And give a tax break to the very wealthy 
who do not need it?
  How about respect for our children? But, no, we are going to have 
thousands of fewer kids in Head Start, thousands of fewer kids getting 
special reading attention, cuts in education. Do you want to hear more? 
Respect for our environmental heritage. Respect for our environmental 
heritage. Respect for our environment--not only passing laws that say 
we will have clean air and clean water but actually enforcing those 
laws.
  The Republican budget does not have respect for the elderly or the 
children or the environment and many other areas because they are so 
respectful of the rich and powerful that they will give them a huge tax 
break and therefore have to cut into these other programs.
  Do the people want a balanced budget? You bet. You bet. But they want 
it to be fair. That is a value, too. Fairness is a value. In their 
budget they raise taxes on people earning less than $10,000 a year. 
Where is the value there for fairness? And they are mad at the 
President because he will not go along with it, and he has the guts to 
stand up and say it. And they do not like it. And they keep saying, 
``Gee, the President doesn't stand for anything.'' But now that he does 
they do not like what he stands for. They want it all ways.
  And then they say, ``Well, the President signed a commitment, a 
commitment to balance the budget in 7 years with CBO estimates.'' They 
left out a few things, however. In the agreement that CBO would check 
with the other experts, the blue chip indicators, the OMB indicators, 
and consider those. It is an important point. He did not just say, yes, 
whatever CBO says. The CBO has to check with these others. He also 
signed on to the fact that we will all protect certain priorities. They 
are listed in that document: Medicaid, Medicare, education, the 
environment.
  So, yes, we all want a balanced budget. And we know that we can get 
there in a fair way. But we are not going to be blackmailed into it. 
And I honestly think that some of the Republican leaders over in the 
House think that because they are threatening a government shutdown we 
are going to say, OK, we give up. Cut Medicare, Medicaid. We do not 
really mean what we say. We do not care about tax breaks to the 
wealthy. All of this was just talk. Just keep the Government. We will 
give up.
  It is not going to happen. So we come down to this very unhappy 
moment in the Senate, angry words, angry feelings, dispirited people 
all over the place. It is about a very important issue: What are our 
values? What do we value as a people?
  So, Mr. President, thank you for this time that I have had to express 
myself this evening. My heart goes out to those Federal employees who 
do not know if they will have a happy Christmas. But I will do 
everything I can to separate that fight, that short-term battle from 
the long-term question, and I hope we can all do that and keep this 
Government going.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________