[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 123 (Tuesday, September 10, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H10167-H10168]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   AFL-CIO ATTACK ADS ON REPUBLICANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Riggs] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RIGGS. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to follow up on some remarks I made 
on the floor earlier today during the course of the debate on one of 
our suspension bills, and that is the reference that I made to the new 
round of attack ads, because I do not think you call them anything but, 
the new round of attack ads being aired on television stations around 
the country and paid for by the AFL-CIO. These are television ads 
orchestrated by the big labor bosses of the AFL-CIO in Washington, 
airing exclusively in the congressional districts of incumbent 
Republicans, and they are part and parcel of an orchestrated campaign 
by the AFL-CIO to help the National Democratic Party win back control 
of the House of Representatives.
  These new ads follow on the heels of their MediScare ads, where they 
distorted our efforts to preserve and to strengthen Medicare and 
protect it from bankruptcy by increasing annual spending for the 
program at a rate of 7 percent as opposed to the 14-percent

[[Page H10168]]

annual growth rate of Medicare in recent years. That is to say, 
increasing spending for Medicare at twice the rate of inflation as 
opposed to three times the rate of inflation.

                              {time}  1745

  And of course those Mediscare television ads nor the fact that 
President Clinton, after much procrastination and foot dragging, has 
finally submitted his own proposal for saving Medicare from bankruptcy. 
That would grow the program. That would increase annual spending for 
Medicare benefits at 7.8 percent annually as opposed to our 7-percent 
growth rate.
  Now the AFL-CIO has come on the air with ads claiming, using the big 
lie technique, that the Republican Congress voted to cut student loans. 
Well, let us go back and take a look at the record. In fact, the 
Republican majority in Congress last year as part of our 7-year plan 
for balancing the budget in H.R. 2491 increased funding for student 
loans by $12 billion, from $24 billion today to $36 billion in the year 
2002. That is a 50-percent increase in Federal taxpayer benefits for 
student loans.
  Under our proposal, which the President vetoed, a record 8.4 million 
student loans would be made in the year 2002 up from 6.7 million 
student loans in 1995. There simply are no cuts, yet the AFL-CIO 
insists on misrepresenting and deliberately distorting our record.
  Second, Pell grants will increase this year to a maximum of $2,500 
per student, the highest level of Pell grants in our country's history. 
That is the highest maximum award of a Pell grant for a college student 
in the history of our country. So we are supporting better education, 
especially for those who need it most.
  We have attempted to begin slowly but surely transferring power and 
control over education back to local school districts and parents 
across the country. It does not belong back here in Washington under 
the control of bureaucrats because, after all, decisionmaking in public 
education is by a longstanding American tradition a decentralized 
custom.
  So we have been working hard, Mr. Speaker, and we continued that work 
today with the passage, actually, I guess the vote was postponed until 
tomorrow, but we did today introduce legislation which will pass by an 
overwhelming bipartisan margin when we take this recorded vote tomorrow 
to reduce loan fees for students. That is the Student Debt Reduction 
Act of 1996 that we had on the floor earlier today.
  We are not decreasing student loans, we are in fact increasing the 
accessibility and affordability of student loans. This follows on the 
heels of a doubling, a 100-percent increase, in taxpayer funding for 
public education in this country between 1945 and 1965, another 100-
percent increase from 1965 to 1985, and a 20-percent increase in 
taxpayer funding for public education since 1985.
  We Republicans are committed to improving education for our Nation's 
youth and saving them from a failed education system run by 
bureaucrats, which has too often not given them the hope and the 
opportunity and promise for a better future that a public education, 
which is the cornerstone of equal opportunity in a Democratic society, 
should provide.
  So I will be speaking on this, I am sure again, as we proceed to 
conclude our legislative business over the next few weeks, but I wanted 
to take this opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to follow up on the debate we 
had today, particularly after the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Kildee] 
challenged my remarks and we were not able to debate it at that time. I 
would dearly like for one or more of my Democratic colleagues to come 
to the floor so that we could have a very legitimate, genuine, 
bipartisan debate on education funding and the right education policies 
for the future of our children.

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