[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 205 (Wednesday, December 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H15279]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             THE BLAME GAME

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. Lewis] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LEWIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, today I listened to the President 
in his news conference, and he was talking about essentially in the 
same way and with the same terms as the previous speaker about extreme 
freshmen, 73 individuals that are holding up the Government, and you 
know it is the same old story: the blame game.
  By the way, I remember a President by the name of John F. Kennedy, 
and I remember when the Bay of Pigs tragedy happened, and President 
Kennedy stood up and said, ``I take the blame, the buck stops here.'' 
But what I heard from President Clinton today was that it is the 
freshmen that are causing this problem, those extremists.
  It reminded me not too long ago when we had the tragedy in Waco. The 
President said, ``It is not my fault,'' and the Attorney General had to 
take the blame.
  He is never to blame. It is never his fault.
  He has offered four budgets that do not keep his word with CBO 
scoring, but it is not his fault. There were three bills on his desk 
that he could have signed that would have got the Government up and 
running again, Commerce, Interior, and VA-HUD, that would have put the 
people back to work, but he vetoed them, and he blames the freshmen.
  Mr. Speaker, let us talk about those extreme freshmen just for a 
minute. What is extreme, and I asked this the other day, what is 
extreme about wanting a balanced budget in 7 years? Seven years, not 
tomorrow, not next year, not 2 years from now, but 7 years. A glidepath 
for 7 years that is going to actually spend basically $3 billion more 
than what we are spending now. There are no cuts. We are going to be 
spending more money. As I said, a glidepath towards a balanced budget 
that will provide a future for our children and our grandchildren, that 
will not allow this country to go bankrupt. What is extreme about that? 
Trying to save the economic viability of this country.
  Medicare. The President said we are extremists, that we are going to 
cut, slash, kill Medicare. There is only a 2-percent difference between 
the Republican plan and the President's plan. Basically $138 difference 
over a year period of time in the year 2002 on what would be spent per 
individual.
  What are we talking about here when we are talking about extremists 
and radicals? Individuals that want to save Medicare for their mothers 
and fathers. My mother and father are 78 years old. I want to save 
Medicare.

                              {time}  1800

  Why would I do anything to hurt the most precious people that I know? 
I do not know when this rhetoric is going to stop, but it is time that 
we get serious about balancing the budget. It is time we do have 
serious negotiations, but the President is not willing. He is the one 
that is not willing. He is the one that broke it off last night. He is 
the one that said, in one instance through the Vice President, that, 
``Well, we cannot go specifically by the CBO. We have to have other 
numbers in there.'' Then he comes back later and he said, ``That was 
not what we meant. We are willing to go by CBO scores now.''
  What are we dealing with here? Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, I wish the 
President would just come forth, put a budget on the table that would 
provide for a balanced budget in 7 years and that would allow the CBO 
to score it to see if the numbers are right. I think we would be 
willing to then look at, what is he talking about, Medicare and taxes? 
We are willing to look.

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