[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 2 (Thursday, January 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H143-H144]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              PAINTED INTO A CORNER BY GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Gibbons] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, here we are, American people, at the 4th 
day of January, 1996, almost 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and what are 
we doing? We are talking.
  Mr. Speaker, in November a year ago the American people put the 
Republicans in charge of the U.S. Congress. They have a majority in the 
House and the Senate. They set the agenda. We cannot bring anything up 
unless they bring it up. They are meeting at 7 o'clock tonight to try 
figure out how to get themselves out of the predicament, how to get 
themselves out of corner that they painted themselves into in this 
ridiculous exercise.
  One of the reasons I think the American people put the Republicans in 
charge is they thought that they could run this place like a business. 
Well, that turned out to be a joke. What business have we ever heard of 
that got mad, could not make a decision, sent its employees home and 
said, ``Stay home, but I will pay you anyway, except the essential 
ones, you keep working but I am not going to pay you for the work that 
you have done''? I have never heard of an American business that is run 
that way; certainly not in my congressional district.
  Mr. Speaker, then there is all this argument about the balanced 
budget. Well, I do not know anybody that is not for a balanced budget 
in this whole House of Representatives or in this whole Congress. The 
question is who is going to pay the cost of the balanced budget? Who is 
going to bear the burden of the balanced budget?

[[Page H144]]

  Well, the Republicans have picked out their victims. Their victims 
are the sick, old and young sick, the aged, the working poor, and a 
portion of the middle class to bear the burden. And at the same time 
they have granted to their rich contributors substantial tax breaks, 
people who do not need the tax breaks, who really have not asked for 
the tax breaks. I know a lot of them; they have never asked me for one. 
And this is the silliest way I have ever seen to run a government.
  Now that covers a lot. I have been around here for 33 years and in 
legislative bodies for a total of 43 years, so I have seen some silly 
things done. But the mismanagement of Newt Gingrich and company, the 
mismanagement of our Republican colleagues of the time and of the 
energy and of the money of this country and of the resources of this 
country is a shame.

  Here in January 1996, we should be making substantial plans as to how 
the budget will be balanced, making equitable changes. Now, this 
balanced budget is not a lot different than other attempts that we have 
made. The amount of dollars are about the same as amount of dollars 
that we did 4 years ago and 2 years ago, the undertakings that we are 
taking. But most of the balance in this so-called balanced budget 
operation does not come at the beginning; it comes in the year 2001 and 
the year 2002.
  Now, we all know what is going to happen then. By that time there 
will be a whole new group of people in charge in this country, and most 
of the silly things that are being said here today will have been 
forgotten and most of the savings that we are talking about will have 
been forgotten.
  I talk a lot to the elderly. I guess they picked me out for 
conversation because they think I am about their age and I have got 
some comity with them. They are worried to death about being forced 
into managed care where they will get a gatekeeper for their medical 
care instead of a physician when they call on the phone for a doctor's 
appointment. They are scared that managed care will mean that the 
insurance companies will decide whether they get a treatment or not, 
not their doctor.
  Most of us go to a doctor because we think we need to go to a doctor. 
But I would rather go to a doctor that is going to be rewarded by being 
paid for what he does for me, not being rewarded by what he does not do 
for me. These are the kind of things that worry Americans.

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