[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 204 (Tuesday, December 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H15091]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  PEOPLE ARE BEHIND THE BUDGET FIGURES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gutknecht). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of May 12, 1995, the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. 
Klink] is recognized during morning business for 2 minutes.
  Mr. KLINK. Mr. Speaker, there has been much name calling, there has 
been rhetoric, there has been invectiveness as we face the second 
Government shutdown of this year with really no end in sight, and as 
previous speakers have talked, the first one was the longest in the 
history of our Nation.
  I think the President made a very valuable and very important point 
yesterday when he talked about the fact that there are people behind 
these figures. When you talk about cuts in Medicare and you talk about 
cuts in Medicaid, when you talk about adult children being held 
responsible for paying the nursing home bills for their parents, taking 
money out of the funds they would use to purchase a home, taking funds 
that they would use to send their children to college, we may be 
balancing the budget in the short run, but in the long run, our Nation 
will be much weaker. Those children of the adult children will be less 
educated.
  I can remember back in the early 1980's when a Republican President 
named Ronald Reagan was pushing the same kind of idea, that somehow 
these massive tax cuts for wealthy individuals and wealthy corporations 
were going to trickle down and were going to help those of us that were 
on the lower side, those of us that were working individuals.
  Let me tell you what happened in my area of southwestern Pennsylvania 
during that period of time. We lost in 13 counties 155,000 
manufacturing jobs. No one ran away with those tax breaks. The rich 
corporations and the rich individuals did not reinvest that money in 
this country, and they are not going to do it now.
  We are talking about taking money out of Medicare, taking money out 
of Medicaid, making adult children pay for the care that their working 
parents paid for with their tax dollars over the last 30 years, since 
1965, when Medicare and Medicaid were passed in this House and were 
signed by President Johnson. They are taking that money and giving it 
away to the wealthy corporations of this Nation.
  That is what it is about. It is about a transfer of wealth. It did 
not work in the 1980's, it blindsided our working people, and it is not 
going to work again in the 1990's, and President Clinton is very 
correct when he stands up and says that he will veto this.
  Mr. Speaker, we have got to sit down and rebalance our priorities, 
not just balance our budget.

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