[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 29 (Wednesday, March 6, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H1750]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    WE ARE NOT ADDRESSING THE ISSUES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I just came to the floor because my 
calendar says it is March 6.
  My whole problem is I cannot figure out when we are going to get our 
work done.
  It seems to me, if it is March 6, that means we are almost halfway 
through this fiscal year, we still have four bills that have not been 
signed, we still have the debt ceiling issue, we still have the fact 
that we can shut Government down at any moment, and what we are hearing 
from the primaries out there, where the people are really being able to 
speak, is they think we have missed the whole boat, that this issue is 
really about the average American family and how they keep the middle-
class American working standard.
  So, Mr. Speaker, let us talk about that, what that is and how we have 
not done anything for that.
  Mr. Speaker, the American people feel we have really missed the boat, 
we have missed the core challenge, and that is helping America's 
working families, the ones who work, the ones who get up every morning, 
the ones who are struggling like mad, the ones who feel like one of 
those hamsters in a wheel where they run faster and faster every year, 
their tongues are hanging out, and yet they feel they do not get out of 
the bottom of that wheel.

  Now one of the things that we have not done that would help, we are 
going to see a lot of photo ops with these people, but these people 
really do not care about photo ops. They really care about some policy 
that would help them. Let us start with the minimum wage.
  The minimum wage is the lowest it has been in 40 years. When I went 
to college, I was able to work my way through college. College tuition 
has gone way, way up, and the minimum wage has stayed way down here. It 
is almost impossible for a young person today to work their way through 
college and finish before they are 80 years old. So the minimum wage is 
terribly important to try and help people to be able to support 
themselves better.
  Let us look at medical care. Medical care is very critical. We have 
got the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill moving in the Senate, but we do not see 
it moving over here. I am the proud cosponsor. I hope many more people 
become cosponsors. But that, too, helps working families to try and 
hold that pillar of medical care underneath them and their families as 
they feel it crumbling.
  There is another whole area; that is student loans. People would like 
to see that pillar be held up because everyone knows their young folks 
are only going to go as far as their education takes them, and getting 
an education is terribly costly, especially in this day and age. So 
doing anything to the student loans is very unfair, and it makes it 
topple.
  When you look at Medicare and Medicaid, those are two other areas 
that really harm the average working family because especially if the 
average working family has a child that is handicapped or whatever, 
they need to be depending on Medicaid to make up the difference. They 
may have elderly parents who desperately need Medicare, and without 
Medicare and Medicaid then the families got to dig deeper in their 
pockets to make this all work.
  You know, part of the stress on these young families and part of 
their frustrations with this body is rather than having pictures they 
would like a minimum wage increase, they would like an insurance bill, 
they would like the guarantee that their pensions are not going to be 
played with. Several times this year we have seen bills saying that 
corporations could do with their pensions what Orange County, CA, did 
with their funds. That does not make you sleep very well at night. They 
want to be sure education is guaranteed in the future, and they want to 
know there is a future.
  I think we really need to roll up our shirtsleeves and get to work 
here. I mean here we are. Yesterday we were out early; here we are 
today, we are out early. I do not know what we are doing. We have not 
gotten the budget done, we have not gotten our work done, and we are 
not addressing the issues that voters all over America, in State after 
State as these primaries roll through, say are front and center. They 
are saying please listen to us. We are the ones that support the 
Government; why does the Government not support the policies we want?
  You know we are going to lose their support of the Government. That 
is one of the things that feeds the cynicism so much. We will lose 
their support of the Government if we are not listening to them and 
providing those policies.
  So I just want to say I am sure where everybody lives there will soon 
be a photo op near them with politicians running around trying to have 
pictures taken with little kids, with working people, in front of a 
hospital deploring hospital costs, whatever. But when you see that 
photo op, think about how does it translate into policy, how does that 
person vote, what do they cosponsor? That is the reality. The picture 
is not the reality, the record is the reality, and I think working men 
and women are going to be looking for those records, Mr. Speaker.

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