[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 10 (Thursday, January 25, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H855]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    FULFILLING OUR RESPONSIBILITIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. Jackson-Lee] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I think that once again it is 
important to explain to the American people really what is going on in 
this body. The American people have sent us to work. There are millions 
and millions of citizens every day going to work. They hold in this 
body a great deal of trust. The responsibility of funding and financing 
this Nation, of ensuring defense, of presiding over the commerce and 
making sure that the economy is both healthy and provides opportunity 
for jobs belongs to this Congress. Yet now we find on January 25 we do 
not have a budget, primarily because the Republican majority never 
completed the task of providing the right appropriations bill in early 
fall of 1995.
  We find now that we are discussing not lifting the debt ceiling limit 
and frivolously bringing this Nation to the brink of economic 
destruction. We have six former Secretaries of the Treasury who have 
indicated that, if we do not lift this debt ceiling and default on the 
full faith and credit of these United States, we will send this Nation 
into a tailspin that will be comparable to the Depression of the 
1930's. Yet, we find that being still raised as a possibility by the 
leadership of the Republican majority.

  My plea is not personally. It is not a personal plea. I will be here 
to work, for it is the duty I owe to my constituents and my 
responsibility is to be here in the U.S. Congress to ensure that we 
have a budget. My plea is for those Social Security recipients on March 
1 who will not get their checks. My plea is for the veterans who will 
not get their checks on March 1. And my plea, again, is for the Bosnian 
troops who will not get their checks on March 1.
  It is for the working man and woman, who have a variety of credit 
cards. They might not want all those credit cards, but on each one is 
an interest amount. That will go up if we do not raise the debt ceiling 
by a certain period of time. So will the consumer loans, so will the 
education loans, all of that, the interest will be outrageous.
  I do not believe that there has been a great deal of compromise to 
date. Much of the media reported the fact that the President spent most 
of the holiday in one-on-one meetings with the Republican majority 
leadership of the House to discuss saving Medicare, to discuss saving 
Medicaid, to discuss saving education opportunities for our young 
people and protecting the environment and to discuss balancing the 
budget.
  Many great leaders have fallen over the last couple of weeks, and 
most of them were the kind of leaders who said government is not a win/
win situation; government is the art of compromise and the ability to 
work together. Government should not allow diverse interests, singular 
interests to take over, but it should work toward common ground, focus, 
funnel your energies toward what is best for all of America.
  I stand before this House because I am saddened as a freshman to 
believe that we have forgotten the Founding Fathers' wisdom, for we 
would imagine that they did not have the strength of mind to understand 
that this Nation would be some 200 million citizens plus when only at 
that time there were some 4 million in a few colonies.
  They had a vision by establishing a presidency, the judiciary and 
these bodies of Congress, both House and Senate. They gave us our 
special responsibilities, the House being in control of the purse 
strings, getting through the budget and ensuring that this Nation stood 
strong with a solid economy.
  Yet, I believe that the Republican leadership has forgotten the words 
and wisdom of our Founding Fathers, and that was that these bodies of 
government should work together, that we should not overtake each other 
but, in fact, in our own wisdom and responsibilities, we should each 
play our role. The President having responsibility for all of this 
country, and we, as a collective body, representing our constituents, 
coming together for the best common good.
  This has not happened. So my challenge is that we must pass a clean 
resolution that lifts the debt ceiling to ensure that veterans are 
paid, to ensure that Social Security payments are made, that the troops 
who are laying their life on the line in Bosnia are paid and their 
families back home are protected and that we never, never, never again 
shut this Government down. We owe this not only to our working 
Americans but to all America, because it is a tragedy that we have 
forgotten the words of our Founding Fathers that we are to work for the 
common good and together. We must do that.

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