[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 1 (Wednesday, January 3, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H9]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            GO DOWN, MR. PRESIDENT, WAY DOWN TO CONGRESSLAND

  (Mr. LEWIS of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, day 19--and the U.S. Government is 
still closed, held captive. Forty million dollars a day--down the 
drain, wasted--almost $800 million. All this the Republicans say, in 
the name of fiscal conservatism. More than a quarter of a million 
Government employees at home, waiting to work and wanting to work. 
Still thousands of others on the job, not getting paid.
  The Ayatollahs of the right continue to hold the U.S. Government 
hostage to their radical demands. Do it our way they say--cut Medicare, 
gut Medicaid, slash education and student loans, attack our 
environment--or we will keep the Government shut.
  People unable to pay their mortgages, their car loans, their 
children's education bills, Government contractors unable to work, 
business people unable to get passports to conduct business abroad. 
None of this matters to the mullahs of the Republican right. They are 
not affected, they are constitutional officers, not Government 
employees.
  So I say here today, go down, Mr. President, way down to 
congressland, tell Newt Gingrich to let our Government go. The American 
people will not give in to Republican blackmail and hostage taking.

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