[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 30 (Thursday, March 7, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H1778]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  THE BUDGET AND FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

  (Mr. VENTO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. VENTO. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to speak for American families 
and for the failure of this Congress to come to grips with dealing with 
the budget and fiscal responsibility. The fact is that the answer that 
was brought to us by this Republican Congress is the wrong answer. 
Cutting Medicare, cutting Medicaid, cutting our education and health 
programs, and assaulting the environment is not the answer. What our 
families need are the tools to take care of one another.
  They need the health care. They need sound education and retirement 
programs. They need their rights on the job so that they can receive a 
living wage. The fact is that families in this country are going to 
continue to suffer. We are going to continue to see the income 
disparity without some change to empower workers. This Congress has to 
wake up and smell the coffee in terms of where the American people are 
and what they want and what we need to do as a Congress, to get on and 
pass our necessary appropriation bills, to make the types of 
compromises that provide for meaningful welfare reform and provide for 
a sound fiscal policy for the next 7 years, not the Republican majority 
walking away from the task because they cannot get there way on tax 
breaks for those that are well off.
  That is what is happening in this country and in this Congress today. 
These issues ought to be the subject of congressional and Presidential 
debates. They ought to be the subject of this Congress. We ought to get 
to work and get the peoples, work done right and stop the Republican 
pea and shell game that is being presented as a budget solution.

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