[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 1 (Wednesday, January 3, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H56-H57]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   CONGRESS SHOULD TAKE THE RESPONSIBILITY TO KEEP GOVERNMENT RUNNING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Volkmer] is recognized for 5 minutes.

[[Page H57]]

  Mr. VOLKMER. Mr. Speaker, earlier today during a one-minute I 
mentioned that what I see going on in this Congress and this House is 
just pure lunacy. You know, under Webster's Dictionary, lunacy is 
intermittent derangement. I recognize that here. It is insanity. That 
has been mentioned here. Great or wild foolishness, a lot of that, and 
a widely foolish act.
  There is no question in my mind that what has been going on in this 
House of Representatives since the December 15 is lunacy. You know, I 
can remember back when I was a young person we had a name for people 
with lunacy. They called them lunatics. There is no question in my mind 
that in this House today we have got a whole bunch of lunatics. They do 
not understand really how this government is supposed to operate.
  They do not understand that under the forefathers, this government, 
under our Constitution, was developed as a tripartite, three-body, 
system. We had the Congress, the Supreme Court, and the President. 
They are coequal. One is not better than the other. One is not supposed 
to be more powerful than the other.

  Then in a range of appropriations, they gave the House the power; 
taxation the same; the power to initiate legislation, only the House. 
But then they gave the President the power of veto, and they said if 
you want to override that veto, it takes two-thirds of each house to do 
it.
  That is the way this Congress had operated for over 200 years, until 
1995. In 1995, our imperialistic Speaker, Speaker Gingrich, and the 
radical Republicans decided that is not the way that this government 
should operate any longer. Oh, no. We are not going to do that anymore. 
If we do not get our way, on our so-called, and I say so-called, seven-
year balanced budget, if the President does not sign it, which he did 
not, he vetoed it, then we are not going to appropriate funds for 
various agencies of the government, which they have not, Labor, HHS, 
D.C., foreign aid, or if the President vetoes it, then we are not going 
to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government while we 
negotiate with the President. We are just going to shut the government 
down.
  That is what has happened. And, lo and behold though, these people 
that suffer from this disease of lunacy now also suffer from a disease 
of irresponsibility, because they say it is not our fault. We did not 
do it. They are not man enough to accept the responsibility of what 
they decided, to run the government by shutdown. Oh, no, it is the 
President. I heard the majority leader just this morning on TV; it is 
the President's fault. The President is shutting the government down.
  The President does not appropriate one penny. Folks, he has no power 
under our Constitution to appropriate one penny. He can only sign a 
bill. If he decides to veto it, then the House has the right to try and 
override; if not, then pass legislation continuing it. Like I say, that 
is what we did under Reagan, while I was here, under Reagan, Bush, 
Carter before him, everybody.
  That is the way it happened. But no, not under this group. No. Shut 
the government down, but do not accept responsibility. Place the 
responsibility somewhere else.
  I even had some of these freshmen tell me earlier, before we broke 
for Christmas, that this is just the start, too, folks, because next 
year they say whey we do the appropriation bills, if the President does 
not sign it and he vetoes it, there will not be a CR, there will not be 
another bill, we will just shut it down. And guess what? When I said, 
you know, this one we have here, this is back in December, it may last 
for several months, they said good. Good, we save that much money. We 
will not be spending the money.
  What kind of government is it where people say it is good to tell 
people you have got to work, but you are not going to get paid? That is 
what happened. That is happening today. Or those of you who do not 
work, you are going to get paid?
  Not only that, at the same time, they keep getting paid all the time. 
And they do not do anything. We have not done anything in this House 
for a month.

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