[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 205 (Wednesday, December 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H15264]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          STOP THE REVOLUTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California [Ms. Waters] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, and Members, we just heard from the minority 
leader that the negotiations have broken down, that the talks, rather, 
that were going on to try and get this Government going have broken 
down. I was hopeful, but I guess I am not surprised. I am not surprised 
because I have kept up and watched very carefully what has been going 
on, and I suppose, as I thought about this, I was reminded that Speaker 
Newt Gingrich said he is a revolutionary and this is a revolution, and 
I suppose Speaker Gingrich is leading a revolution, and in order to do 
that you must disrupt, you must block, you must impede, you must deny, 
you must do whatever is necessary--I guess by any means necessary--you 
must even take extreme means to keep anything from happening. I guess 
that is what revolution is all about.
  It is unfortunate that the Speaker has decided to lead this 
revolution against the American people. Government, for all intents and 
purposes, has stopped. It is closed down. We cannot get a continuing 
resolution because the revolutionary has stopped everything.
  Now I was led to believe that there were some agreements. Now, if you 
will recall, we got a continuing resolution that carried us up until 
December 15. How did they get that? They got that because there were 
some agreements. They got together, and the revolutionary said, ``Mr. 
President, if you will agree to a 7-year balanced budget and CBO 
numbers, then we can talk,'' and the President, in order to get a 
continuing resolution so that we could keep going, we could keep 
Government open and get on with the negotiations, essentially agreed to 
that. So that is off the table, that is already agreed to, a 7-year 
balanced budget and CBO numbers.
  So what is stopping the negotiations?
  The revolutionary Gingrich also agreed that he would recognize and 
respect our priorities. The President said to him, ``I cannot allow you 
to dismantle Medicare, I cannot allow you to gut Medicaid, I cannot 
allow you to do away with education in this country, and we must, we 
must, protect the environment.''
  And the revolutionary, Newt Gingrich, said, ``All right, we will 
respect that.''
  So, Mr. Speaker, they came together and agreed on those basic 
principles in order to get to the negotiation table.
  Now revolutionary Newt Gingrich is saying, ``Unless you agree to gut 
Medicare and Medicaid, I don't want to play, I don't want to 
negotiate,'' and so we are past December 15 now, the Government is 
closed down, we cannot get a continuing resolution, and the 
revolutionary will not go back to the negotiating table.
  That is where we are, my colleagues. That is what it is all about. I 
am convinced that this really is a revolution; I just did not think it 
would be so extreme. I never dreamed, not in my wildest imagination did 
I dream, that revolutionary Newt Gingrich  would be willing to stop 
this country dead in its tracks in order to prove that he is a 
revolutionary.
  So I suppose, when the veterans do not get their paychecks, when 
people cannot use their public parks, I suppose when people cannot get 
passports, when all of this is taking place, that revolutionary Newt 
Gingrich is willing to sit here and say, ``That's all right, I want my 
way.''
  We have seen some of the actions of the revolutionary in the past, 
and we know that the revolutionary gets very upset when he does not 
have his way. If you can recall what happened just a few weeks ago when 
there was a plane that went to a most important funeral in Israel, and 
the revolutionary could not have his way, he came back, he pouted, he 
made statements, he went on and on and on.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope the revolutionary will stop this revolution on 
the people and allow Government to work.

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