[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 13 (Wednesday, January 31, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H982-H983]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     URGING REPUBLICAN MEMBERS TO SIGN DISCHARGE PETITION TO AVOID 
                          GOVERNMENTAL DEFAULT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas [Mr. Doggett] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, before my colleague, the gentleman from 
Cleveland, OH [Mr. Hoke] leaves, I appreciate his comments about 
governmental default. I would just offer the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. 
Hoke] the opportunity to come down here in the well and join over 150 
Members.
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. DOGGETT. No, I will not yield. Mr. Speaker, we do not need any 
more of this crybaby nonsense around here. The question that I was 
asking the gentleman from Ohio is, that in the event that he feels, and 
I do commend him for his comments on default, he feels as strongly 
about it as he said, then I would ask him to come down and join the 
over 150 Members of this House who have already signed on a discharge 
petition so that today, if we could get a few more signatures, we could 
vote to avoid this problem of default and go ahead and resolve the debt 
limit right now.
  Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman wishes to respond to that, I would be 
glad to yield to him briefly to do that.
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman very much. I appreciate 
the gentleman yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I would say to the gentleman, no, I will not join. I 
will tell him why I will not. Because that particular piece of 
legislation gives another $500 billion of additional extension on the 
debt ceiling, a half a trillion dollars. I think that is absolutely 
dead wrong. It is the kind of license that he and the other lovers of 
big government in this Congress on the other side that are now in the 
minority want. I refuse it. I reject it.
  Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, that is interesting to hear, since it was a 
limit that was already in the Republican reconciliation bill. You have 
already voted to do that two or three times here. But now you feel a 
need to have a crowbar to highjack the Government, to pressure the 
President, to threaten the future of this country by waiting until a 
few days before we enter the first default in the 200-plus-year history 
of this country. It is that kind of political shenanigans that the 
people of this country are rejecting.
  Mr. Speaker, I heard on the way over here this morning that there was 
another low in the temperature in Embarrassment, MN. They had gotten 
down to minus 40 or minus 50. That may be a low in terms of the 
temperature, but you know, I have not seen a low like we have here in 
this House this morning.

  Just look around. You will not find many Members on the floor. Why is 
that? Because after a 5- or 6-day weekend that we just celebrated, the 
Republican leadership does not have one piece of legislation on this 
floor for the Congress to act on today. They think work is not only a 
four-letter word, but a dirty four-letter word. What is this Congress 
doing, if here, even before the lunch hour, we cannot get about working 
and dealing with the critical problems that this country faces?
  I will tell you, Mr. Speaker, all the news from the north end of this 
country is not cold news, because I see a report here from the State of 
Oregon. Our distinguished colleague here in the House, the gentleman 
from Oregon, Congressman Ron Wyden, is now Senator Ron Wyden, because 
the people of Oregon had an opportunity to consider this proposal to 
let Medicare wither on the vine, to consider the proposal to have 
unilateral disarmament on our environment, to consider the mistaken 
priorities of this House Republican leadership, and they voted ``no,'' 
and in favor of sending a Democrat to the U.S. Senate.
  Mr. Speaker, last week the Senate came within one vote, one vote, of 
passing the very kind of adjustment in the debt limit to protect the 
full faith and credit of this country, the same type that I asked the 
gentleman form Ohio [Mr. Hoke] to come down here and sign, along with 
over 150 Democrats, to not threaten the creditworthiness of our 
country. One vote. And now Senator Ron Wyden will be over there to cast 
a vote for fiscal responsibility.
  I commend and congratulate him, Mr. Speaker, but I particularly 
commend the people of Oregon for speaking out against this extremist 
agenda and doing what they have the power to do, and that is hold their 
public officials accountable, and replace a Republican with a Democrat, 
and a very progressive and responsible Democrat, to do something about 
the tragic circumstances which this extremist agenda has placed the 
country in.
  Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. DOGGETT. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
  Mr. Speaker, I am disappointed that some Members on the Republican 
side of the aisle would not walk those 45 feet it would take to sign a 
discharge petition so we would not default on our debt, so that on 
March 1 we could pay Social Security recipients their checks, and 
veterans, and even soldiers serving in Bosnia now will not get paid if 
we do not do something about this debt problem.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the gentleman a question. If he and 
I were in business and we were within 30 days of our company going 
bankrupt, and we took a 26-day vacation and went to Hawaii and got a 
paid vacation and said, ``We will come back 4 days before our company 
goes bankrupt,'' what do you think the stockholders of that company 
would do to you and me?
  Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, I think they would throw out the management 
of the company. That is exactly what the people of the United States 
are going to do if we continue to have the kind of shenanigans that 
have been 

[[Page H983]]
going on here. It is time to protect the full faith and credit of this 
country.

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