[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 61 (Monday, May 6, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H4427]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE PRETEND PRESIDENT

  (Mr. BALLENGER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BALLENGER. Mr. Speaker, President Clinton is just pretending to 
be President, He is just pretending to propose solutions to our 
Nation's problems. Let me illustrate what I mean.
  Take the issue of helping the working poor. The President, by 
proposing an increase in the minimum wage, has a pretend solution to a 
real problem. Raising minimum wage will cause job loss and won't help 
the working poor. Even President Clinton agrees. He said so in Time 
magazine in 1995. If President Clinton thought raising the minimum wage 
was a good idea, he should have raised it when the Democrats had 
control of the Congress during the first 2 years of his term. He didn't 
I can only conclude that the President doesn't want to help the working 
poor, only wants to pretend to help.
  Another recent example of pretending is the announcement that he will 
sell 12 million barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve in 
an effort to reduce rising gasoline prices. Twelve million barrels 
sounds like a lot of oil, but it is less than a day's supply for the 
Nation. The sale of oil will have a negligible effect on prices. If he 
wanted a real solution to a real problem, he would support repeal of 
his 4.3 cents a gallon gasoline tax of 1993. However, President Clinton 
would rather make a bold announcement and pretend to do something about 
rising gas prices.

  We need a President that has real solutions for real problems. Not a 
President who is playing ``let's pretend.''

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