[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 48 (Tuesday, April 16, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H3398]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              THE EXTREME REPUBLICAN MEAN-SPIRITED AGENDA

  (Mr. ENGEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, it has been 16 months since the Republicans 
have taken over Congress, and what have we gotten for it? We have 
gotten an extreme agenda that hurts the middle class.
  The previous Speaker showed why the environment is so important and 
how the Republican majority is doing nothing to help the environment. 
We have Medicare cuts and Medicaid cuts that hurt our senior citizens. 
We have the largest education cuts in American history. Let me say that 
again, the largest education cuts in American history. As we approach 
Earth Day, we find cuts in the environment, cuts in environmental 
enforcement, allowing the polluters to continue to pollute.
  They use the code word ``balance.'' That means let us let industry 
continue to pollute. They hurt the middle class. They want to keep 
corporate welfare. This is what the agenda was all about yesterday.
  They talk about tax relief. We have rules in this House that we 
passed, much-heralded rules saying that there needs to be a 
supermajority in order to raise taxes, and the Republicans have waived 
those rules three times.
  Let us stop the nonsense. Let us stop hurting the middle class with 
the extreme Republican mean-spirited agenda.

                          ____________________