[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 24, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H782]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               NO DEFAULT

  (Mr. KENNEDY of Massachusetts asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. KENNEDY of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, last evening President 
Clinton held out an olive branch to all of the people of this country 
to say it is time to heal the fractures which have divided us as 
Americans.
  I reached out some years ago to Republicans to say that we ought to 
have a balanced budget in this country. I was delighted to see that we 
got to a point where Democrats and Republicans agree on the fact that 
we need to balance the budget.
  We have very different ideas about how to get that budget in balance. 
But that does not mean that either party has the right to drive this 
country for the first time not only into debt but to drive it to a 
point where we default on our obligations that have been made by 
generations before us.
  I ask the Republicans and Democrats to come up here to this desk and 
to sign a discharge petition to make certain that we have a clean debt 
ceiling provided for the people of this country. People have fought and 
died for the United States of America, for our Bill of Rights, for what 
this country stands for. Let us not think we are so important that we 
have the right to turn our backs on what this country has stood for for 
250 years. Let us sign a clean discharge petition.

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