[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 3 (Friday, January 5, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E27-E28]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            CLINTON'S BUDGET

                                 ______


                           HON. DOUG BEREUTER

                              of nebraska

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, January 5, 1996

  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, this member commends to his colleagues an 
editorial which appeared in the Omaha World-Herald on January 5, 1996.

   Budget Ball Is in Clinton's Court, and Public Knows It's His Play

       Finally the public seems to be beginning to see through 
     President Clinton's rhetoric on the federal budget impasse.
       For too long, public opinion polls indicated that Clinton 
     was being rewarded for refusing to negotiate with 
     congressional Republicans over a seven-year balanced budget 
     agreement. In a Nov. 19 ABC News poll, for example, 49 
     percent of the respondents approved of the way Clinton was 
     handling the budget dispute, while 42 percent disapproved.
       In the most recent poll, however, the president's approval 
     rating on the handling of the budget had dropped to 39 
     percent. His disapproval rating had risen to 56 percent. 
     Fewer respondents blamed Congress--51 percent in November, 44 
     percent this week.
       In November, 45 percent supported the statement that 
     Clinton was ``honestly trying to resolve the budget issue,'' 
     while 52 percent said he was ``just playing politics.'' This 
     week, 33 percent still viewed him as a sincere budget 
     negotiator, while 66 percent said he was playing politics.
       Congressional Republicans have given significant ground in 
     an effort to reach a budget compromise. Clinton has given 
     them no 

[[Page E28]]
     credit for this movement, instead battering them with emotional claims 
     that their budget would cause serious harm to the poor, the 
     weak and the underprivileged.
       House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas has called 
     attention to congressional Republicans' significant 
     concessions. At one time, he said, they had pushed for $101 
     billion in savings on welfare programs over the seven years. 
     Now they are willing to settle for $65 billion. Originally, 
     they targeted 300 government agencies for elimination. Now 
     the goal is about 30.
       A major element of the GOP budget plan was a $354 billion 
     tax cut. Armey noted that Republicans have allowed the tax 
     cut to be scaled back to $245 billion.
       Pete du Pont, a former Republican presidential candidate, 
     has pointed out that the House Republicans--the same people 
     painted by Clinton as zealous, unbending revolutionaries--
     have already given up more than half of their pro-growth tax 
     cuts. He said that in all likelihood they will give up half 
     again to get a budget deal.
       That's something you don't hear when Clinton tromps into 
     the White House press briefing room to trash the Gingrich 
     Republicans. And it's not something the television networks 
     point out when they fill their newscasts with sobbing federal 
     workers who can't pay their rent.
       Armey demonstrated that congressional Republicans have made 
     ``a good-sized mountain'' of concessions. Still, the 
     president lays the full blame for the government's being 
     without a budget and partially shut down at the feet of House 
     Republicans. He whines that he is being blackmailed by 
     intransigent Republicans in the House who place politics 
     ahead of the national interest.
       The government is shut down because the president vetoed a 
     budget bill that included the funds to pay the federal 
     workers now on furlough. Clinton is pressing Republicans to 
     approve another continuing resolution to fund the government 
     through Jan. 12. They've already been there, done that. The 
     national interest, not to mention our children's security, 
     would be best served by enactment of a balanced budget--not 
     another stopgap spending measure. To resolve the impasse, it 
     will take a president who quits posturing and makes 
     concessions of a magnitude similar to those made by 
     congressional Republicans.

                          ____________________