[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 23, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H743]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1300
                       GOP MOVING THE GOAL POSTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Goodling). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of May 12, 1995, the gentlewoman from Connecticut [Ms. DeLauro] 
is recognized during morning business for 3 minutes.
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, in November, House Budget Chairman John 
Kasich said this about the budget negotiations: ``Frankly, we don't ask 
for a lot. We ask for nothing more than a commitment to do this in a 7-
year period. The priorities within that 7-year plan are negotiable.''
  The Republican leadership in both House and the Senate echoed Mr. 
Kasich's sentiments and asked President Clinton to produce a 7-year 
balanced budget using the economic assumptions of the Congressional 
Budget Office. That's all we want, they said, and then we can negotiate 
the details.
  Well, the President has done his part. He has given Republicans a 7-
year balanced budget using CBO numbers. But now, Republican leaders 
want to move the goal posts in the middle of the game. Now, Mr. Kasich 
and the Republican leadership in Congress say they will not negotiate 
on the budget priorities.
  The budget negotiations do come down to a question of priorities. 
Democrats and the President want a balanced budget that protects 
Medicare, education and the environment, and includes a tax cut for 
middle-class families. The Republicans want deeper cuts in Medicare, 
education, and the environment to help pay for a larger tax break that 
goes primarily to upper-income families and large corporations. And 
they want a backroom deal on Medicare. That is wrong.
  Yet, despite our differences, a balanced budget is in reach. Both 
sides of the aisle have produced plans that will get us there. We will 
never all agree on all the details. However, if we can produce a 
balanced budget that protects Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the 
environment, it will pass this House, it will pass the other body and 
it will be signed into law by the President.
  My Republican colleagues said that if the President gave them a 7-
year CBO budget, they would negotiate. The President has done that. 
It's time for Republicans to keep your word and get back to the 
negotiating table.
  For 220 years, this democracy has worked. Let's make it work again. 
Government shutdowns and threatened defaults on our debt--these tactics 
are an affront to democracy. It's time to put away the blackmail 
schemes and put America on the track to a balanced budget that protects 
our priorities: Medicare, education, environmental protection, and a 
tax cut for working middle-class families.
  Thus far, this Congress has been the least productive Congress since 
1933. Will that be the legacy of the 104th Congress? Or, will we rise 
above partisan politics and do what's right for the country?

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