[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 2 (Thursday, January 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H158]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   COUNTERING THE REPUBLICAN SPIN ON THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  The Speaker pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Wynn] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WYNN. Mr. Speaker, today is day 20 of the Government shutdown and 
the spin coming from the Republican side goes something like this: 
Well, you know, it is not really our shutdown. It is President 
Clinton's shutdown.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to make it very clear to the American people that 
nothing could be further from the truth. The President does not have 
the power to end this shutdown. He can take no unilateral action, 
because if he could, he would. But he can take no unilateral action 
that will end this shutdown. It is not his shutdown.
  The only way he can shut it down is toe acquiesce to the Republicans' 
demands. It is in fact the shutdown of the Gingrich Republicans, 
because they have the power by virtue of being in the majority and by 
virtue of having the votes to pass a clean continuing resolution which 
could put Government employees back to work. Let there be no mistake. 
This is a Gingrich Republican shutdown.
  Mr. Speaker, the second spin we hear is in reality it is just 
bickering and really both sides are at fault. That is not true. We have 
198 votes to put Federal employees back to work, to pay contractors for 
work that they do for our country. But it is not just Democrats. In the 
Senate, Mr. Dole says enough is enough. So, on the Senate side both 
Democrats and Republicans are willing to put Federal workers back to 
work, and House Democrats are ready to put Federal employees back to 
work.
  It seems to me it is clear that this is not a matter of more partisan 
bickering.

                              {time}  1900

  So what is it? It is an attempt by a few self-styled Republican 
revolutionary hard-liners and extremists to dictate the terms of the 
budget debate. They are essentially saying, ``If the President does not 
accept our budget terms, then we will keep the Government shut with all 
the attendant harms that go along with that.''
  Let me digress for a minute, because one of these revolutionaries got 
on the floor and talked about, ``Well, gee, it is not a problem because 
the banks are going to provide emergency mortgage relief.''
  No. 1, that acknowledges that there is in fact an emergency but, No. 
2, that is not what banks are for. In this country banks are supposed 
to enhance our economic vitality. The money they are giving out to 
Federal employees because of their emergency could more better be spent 
expanding our economy, providing small business loans, or helping new 
home buyers, instead of bailing out people that the Republican hard-
liners put in trouble.
  But let us go to the meat of the issue, the balanced budget. Again, 
the Republican revolutionaries get on the floor and say, ``This 
sacrifice is worth it, because ultimately we are going to fundamentally 
change the way business is done in this country.'' That is right. More 
for the wealthy, less for the seniors, less for the poor, less for 
children.

  The specifics of the budget break down this way, and this is why the 
President does not like it and I do not like it, either. They want to 
give $245 billion of tax breaks to the wealthy. They say, ``Oh, no, 
that's not true, we just want to send money back home to the people.''
  Well, here are the facts. According to the Treasury Department, half 
of the $245 billion would go to people making over $100,000 a year. So 
some $120 billion plus is going to people making over $100,000 a year.
  Folks, that comes to about 4 percent of the population. So it breaks 
down like this: 4 percent of the population is going to get half of the 
tax breaks in their so-called balanced budget, which amounts to about 
$100 billion. That is not fair.
  On the other side of the coin, they want to take $270 billion out of 
Medicare, the program for the seniors, and about $160 billion out of 
Medicaid, the program for the poor and the disabled. Let us think about 
it. If we did not have to give the big tax break to the wealthy 4 
percent, we would have to take a lot less money out of the pockets of 
the seniors and the poor and the disabled.
  That is the meat of this debate, and this is why the President says 
their budget is unacceptable. If they would give up some of the tax 
breaks, we could have a balanced budget. There are many of us on this 
side of the aisle who want a balanced budget in 7 years using the so-
called real numbers. We can do that. We do not need to shut down the 
Government and we do not need to give a big tax break to the wealthy.
  Who is being cheated in all this? The taxpayer. Remember, these are 
not President Clinton's employees, these are not the Democrats' 
employees. There are our employees, they are the taxpayers' employees, 
and quite frankly these people are not at work, they are not doing the 
taxpayers' business. They are not providing Federal home loan 
assistance; 2,500 applications are not being processed. They are not 
providing renewals of vouchers for moderately priced homes.
  They are not providing services to small businesses. Two hundred and 
sixty small business applications a day are not being processed through 
the SBA. Ninety small businesses a day are not being able to bid for 
contracts because of this Government shutdown. And on and on its goes.
  Ladies and gentlemen, the balanced budget is a real issue, but the 
Government shutdown is a false issue created by so-called 
revolutionaries who somehow believe that the ends justify the means, 
and they do not care who is harmed in the process.

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