[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 203 (Monday, December 18, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H15066-H15067]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   CLAIMING THE $1 MILLION OFFERED BY REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Mississippi [Mr. Taylor] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I take this opportunity to 
speak to the American people tonight to point out an inaccuracy, if not 
an outright deception, that has been printed in a number of newspapers 
around the country. We will give my fellow Mississippian, Haley 
Barbour, an opportunity to honor the pledge that he made to pay the 
first American who proves his statement false $1 million.
  Mr. Speaker, that is this portion of the ad that was in the USA Today 
for a number of days. This particular ad was last Monday, December 12. 
It says, ``The Republican National Committee will present a cashier's 
check for $1 million to the first American who can prove the following 
statement is false.'' And then in quotations it says, ``November 1995, 
the U.S. House and Senate passed a balanced budget bill. It increases 
total spending on Medicaid by more than 50 percent from 1995 to the 
year 2002, pursuant to the Congressional Budget Office standards.''
  While I do not doubt what Mr. Barbour had to say about Medicare and 
Medicaid, the spending really will go up. It is not the cut that many 
of my colleagues call it. It is just a limitation on growth. It is 
something that we as businesspeople have to do.
  I will, however, take issue with the first part, that in November 
1995 the House and Senate did not pass a balanced budget bill.
  The budget that passed for fiscal year 1996, in October, contained a 
deficit, according to the Congressional Budget Office, of $270 billion 
for next year. Now, under the rules of the House, going all the way 
back to the earliest days of our republic, Congress can only allocate 
funds for 1 year at a time. So, although it was a 7-year plan, it means 
absolutely nothing. One Congress cannot commit another Congress to 
doing something or not doing something.
  Mr. Speaker, those who follow Congress know, there has already been a 
40-percent turnover just in the past 3 years, and over a 50-percent 
turnover in the membership of Congress in the past 6 years. So it is 
totally inaccurate for Mr. Barbour to say that we are going to commit 
future Congresses to reduce spending.
  All this Congress can do is commit itself. And the budget that it has 
committed itself to has been certified by the Congressional Budget 
Office, as recently as December 14, to be $270 billion in deficit.
  So, the much ballyhooed Balanced Budget Act of 1995 was a fake, a 
farce, a fraud, an insult to the people of this great country. As a 
matter of fact, even after certain members of the majority party called 
the Congressional Budget Office and requested that the CBO take a 
second look at their numbers, the number went from an annual operating 
deficit of $296 billion to an annual operating deficit of $270 billion, 
which is still a $7 billion increase over the annual operating deficit 
of this year.
  Mr. Speaker, so tomorrow morning I will be walking over to the 
Republican National Headquarters and I will present the following 
information to Mr. Barbour. I will give him the opportunity to make 
good on his word. For those who do not know Mr. Barbour, he is a former 
citizen of the great city of Yazoo City, MS.
  Yazoo City has several distinctions. First, one of the Confederate 
ironclads was built there in secret in the war of Northern Aggression, 
or the Civil War as the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Pelosi] might 
refer to it. That ironclad, the Arkansas, was responsible for lifting 
the siege of Vicksburg. Despite incredible odds against it, it actually 
ran off something like 65 Union ships in the summer of 1862.
  More recently, the city of Yazoo City is famous for sending America's 
storytellers. One of the great storytellers is William Morris, a writer 
of renown throughout the country. More recently, a comedian by the name 
of Jerry Clower comes from Yazoo City. Tomorrow, we are going to give 
my good friend, Mr. Barbour, the opportunity to tell America whether he 
is a man of his word or a storyteller.
  Mr. Speaker, I have used the resources of this office, and my 
congressional office, to help get this information. Therefore, it would 
be most inappropriate if I asked Mr. Barbour for 

[[Page H15067]]
that money personally. I think it would be most appropriate if he made 
that check to the University of Southern Mississippi Development Fund. 
I will be over there tomorrow morning to collect.

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