[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 1 (Wednesday, January 3, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H66]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  REPUBLICANS HOLD GOVERNMENT HOSTAGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Connecticut [Ms. DeLauro] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I just want to make a quick comment on the 
comments of my colleague, the last speaker, who knows very well that 
there have been unbalanced budgets in this country under Republican 
Presidents, but never has there been a shutdown of the Government of 
the magnitude that we see today.
  What we see here is a political ploy. It has very little to do with 
balancing the budget but it has to do with trying to hold hostage this 
Democratic President. It quite frankly is politics of the very worst 
kind, and I believe that the American public has some understanding of 
what is going on here.
  Mr. Speaker, last months Speaker Gingrich shut down the Government 
because he did not like his seat on Air Force One. Now the Gingrich 
Republicans in the House of Representatives are at it again. This time 
they are holding the American people hostage in order to blackmail the 
President into agreeing to their massive cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, 
education, and the environment, all to pay for a tax break for the 
wealthiest Americans.
  Make no mistake about it, this has been the Speaker's plan all along. 
As long ago as April of last year, the Speaker threatened to shut down 
the Government in order to get his way on the budget, and I quote him: 
``I don't care what the price is,'' the Speaker said in April. ``I 
don't care what the price is.''
  It is this kind of childish philosophy that has isolated the Gingrich 
Republicans from responsible Republicans in the United States Senate 
who have joined Democrats in calling to open up the Government and put 
the employees back to work again.
  ``Enough is enough.'' That is the quote from the majority leader of 
the other body in announcing that he has had it with this legislative 
blackmail scheme. Enough is enough. That is how the American people 
feel. Enough is enough for the 600,000 senior citizens who are losing 
their Meals on Wheels because of the Republican Government shutdown.

                              {time}  1930

  Enough is enough for the small businesses that are facing layoffs 
because they have not received the small business loans that they were 
promised, and enough is enough for the Federal employees who serve the 
public every day and who now have been betrayed,
  Think of the Federal employees, of the Social Security office once 
located in the Murragh Federal Building in Oklahoma City. In April they 
survived the worst terrorist attack in our Nation's history, and today 
they are the target of political terrorists and are being forced to 
work without pay.
  The Republican Party claims to be the party of fiscal responsibility, 
but this Government shutdown is costing taxpayers $50 million a day, 
$50 million a day. Thus far, the shutdown has cost hard-working 
taxpayers $550 million. That is right, taxpayers are paying hundreds of 
millions of dollars, and they are receiving no services in return. That 
is not fiscally responsible. That is not responsible at all under any 
set of circumstances.
  Thus far, the House of Representatives has had 12 votes to reopen the 
Government, and only two Republicans have had the courage to join 
Democrats to end the irresponsible politics of the Gingrich Republicans 
and in order to reopen this Government.
  Enough is enough. That is what the public wants is for this 
Government to open and not to be having a gun pointed at the heads of 
Federal employees or at the President of the United States.
  Let us get serious here. We are sent here to do the work of the 
people, and that is to carry on the Government of this country every 
single day, and if the Gingrich Republicans who are, for political 
reasons, only keeping this Government shut down, at great cost to the 
American taxpayer, at great cost to the American public in terms of the 
services that we are bound to provide to people in this country, and 
they put their faith and trust in all of us who serve in this body, and 
we dare not turn our backs on the American public in the way that the 
Speaker of this House has, and the Republican leadership.
  Woe to those who do this, for the public will turn its back on you.

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