[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 13 (Wednesday, January 31, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H984]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  DEMOCRATS SO-CALLED SCAMS ARE SHAMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Mica] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, and my colleagues, I come to the floor this 
morning to talk about two scams that have been perpetrated by both the 
administration and the other side of the aisle.
  The first scam is what I call the Clinton shutdown and the charges 
that were made about balancing the budget and about getting our 
Nation's finances in order. It is part of a scare scam, and it is 
pretty clever. It says, that Republicans will hurt the elderly, the 
environment, education.
  In fact, if we just take a minute and look at the facts involved 
here, in the area of Medicare, we have heard it over and over: 
Republicans are going to cut it. In fact, over the next 7 years we will 
add $724 billion in spending.
  Medicaid, we will add $348 billion in spending. In education and job 
training and student loans, we will add $25.7 billion in spending. But 
we hear it over and over.
  What they do not in fact tell us is that part of this argument is 
about the bureaucracy. EPA has 6,069 employees in Washington, DC. That 
is almost as many as a dozen years ago, a total of 18,000. I am not 
talking about the 12,000 outside of Washington, but 6,000 in 
Washington, DC.
  Education, we have 3,322 employees in Washington, D.C., out of a 
total of 4,876 employees. A total of 358,000 Federal employees. These 
are not defense; these are not civilian defense. These are part of that 
bureaucracy within just earshot of the Capitol building. That is what 
this debate is really about.
  Now, my colleagues, a second scam comes before us, and the second 
scam is this: If the Republicans do not continue taxing and spending 
and driving this Nation into debt, then we will not be able to pay our 
Social Security recipients, and they have even said, Mr. Smith said, we 
are not going to be able to pay our veterans.
  This administration, which has just gotten through robbing the 
Federal retirement trust funds, now is engaged in the second scam. They 
can pay welfare payments to illegal aliens, they can pay medical 
benefits better than we have for our veterans, but they cannot pay 
Social Security.
  They can pay for bilingual education for illegal aliens. They can 
find $50 billion to bail out Mexico. But, in fact, they cannot pay 
Social Security and our veterans.

  So the President is making these choices. The administration is 
making these choices. They can even pay AmeriServe, or whatever the 
name of the President's volunteer, so-called volunteer program, which 
pays volunteers for the first time in the history of this country and 
gives them an array of perks that would make any veteran blush.
  These are the choices that we face. I will say again, the greatest 
threat facing our senior citizens today is that we get this mess in 
order.
  We debated here about extending the debt limit of this country for 34 
days, and we needed $67 billion. We are going into the hole at the rate 
of over half a billion dollars a day, and they want to continue this 
tax-and-spend policy; and they say that in fact we cannot pay our 
senior citizens Social Security checks. Well, that is their choice, 
because they have other choices, and that is what this debate is about, 
whether the debate deals with in fact balancing the budget or extending 
the debt limit.
  So we are in fact here today. Let me tell my colleagues, I chair the 
Subcommittee on Civil Service, and let me describe the mess we 
inherited: 35 of 39 Federal retirement trust funds have unfunded 
liabilities in the trillions of dollars. Now they have spent the last 
number of days robbing what little remains, what shred remains, so now 
they are threatening our senior citizens. That is what this is about.
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. MICA. I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Let me just say that I asked the Congressional 
Research Service whether Secretary Rubin could legally withhold trust 
funds. They said their first review of the law said, no, it would be 
illegal to withhold trust fund payments for any trust fund where there 
is a surplus coming into those trust funds. I have written Secretary 
Rubin the day before yesterday asking him to give us the reasons why he 
thinks he can do this.
  Mr. MICA. Finally, my colleagues, let me say that the President, 
after this Congress and this new majority did its job and came forward 
with 12 funding bills, the President never came up with a balanced 
budget proposal until January 6, 1996.

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