[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 23, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H748-H749]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          SHAMEFUL DEMAGOGUERY

  (Mr. HOKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, I was on a plane last week and a fellow 
citizen of Lakewood turned to me and he said:

       You know, Martin, it seems to be the difference between the 
     new Democrat and the old Democrat is that the new Democrats 
     are talking a great game, a great wonderful conservative 
     game, and then they turn around and do the same thing that 
     all the old liberal Democrats did.

  This was a fellow who grew up in Texas as a Democrat.
  I think that is exactly right on the money, and exactly what we can 
expect tonight from the President's State of the Union Address. We are 
going to hear another fabulous address. But when it gets down to the 
nitty-gritty, when we actually present a balanced budget, when we can 
actually do the right thing, then we in fact get into the gutter and 
engage in the most mindless and really shameful demagoguery that we 
have heard around here in a long time.
  Let me just give you one example, and that is the Medicare example. 
Our Medicare program would increase spending at 7.4 percent per pay for 
the next 7 years; the President's is around 7.6, 7.7 percent. Yet this 
is deep cuts in Medicare to pay for a tax cut for our rich friends? And 
with a straight face? It is just shameless.

[[Page H749]]


                              {time}  1415
         TALK OF DEFAULT MORE RECKLESS THAN GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  (Ms. NORTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, the only thing more reckless than a 
Government shutdown is talk of default, and I mean talk. Talk alone on 
this subject is playing with fire. Secretary Rubin is accused of 
bluffing. The real question is are we bluffing?
  The market opened today down 50 points. It is beginning to level off. 
But I do not like this game of chicken and I hope my colleagues do not. 
We have maligned the Secretary, but I think we should thank him for 
finding magic money. They language he is using this time is quite 
different and quite definitive and he concludes by saying I will not 
sell the Nation's gold, and I will not withhold taxpayers' refunds.
  Now we are into whether we will have a clean or dirty debt limit 
bill. This gets us into the mode from which we have just ascended. 
Please, no more ``deja vu all over again,'' not with the Nation's full 
faith and credit.

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