[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 128 (Tuesday, September 17, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H10500-H10501]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              HOW THE ADMINISTRATION PLAYS THE BLAME GAME

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Weldon] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON. Madam Speaker, the blame game with this administration 
continues. It is absolutely amazing. They take the credit for anything 
they can take the credit for, but when it comes to taking the blame for 
poor decisions or for problems or failures, they run the other way.
  Remember, if you will, back to August, Madam Speaker, when this 
Congress, in three historic moves, passed welfare reform legislation, 
medical legislation dealing with health care reform in this country, 
and the minimum wage bill. The President could have had us pass health 
care reform 2 years ago. We were ready to pass what finally passed this 
body, but he held it up, because he was not sure he wanted to support 
that, especially in light of Hillary's plan in the first 2 years of the 
administration. But he took credit for it.
  Then we passed welfare reform. The President vetoed it twice, but 
then when he read the polls in August, he realized he had better switch 
and come out and support the bill. He took credit for that. Then he had 
the Vice President go before a national group and say publicly, but 
next year, if I am reelected, we will use the line item veto and we 
will undo those portions of welfare reform that we do not like.
  Then we see the President take credit for minimum wage, even through 
in his first 2 years, with a Democrat House and Democrat Senate, he 
could have passed minimum wage with no problem. He did not even raise 
the issue. In fact, he said it was not the time to raise the minimum 
wage. This President sure can take the credit, but he cannot take the 
blame.
  Madam Speaker, I am outraged, because tomorrow in the Committee on 
National Security we will have a hearing on the recently released 
report put together by the Pentagon on the reasons why we lost 19 young 
military personnel in Saudi Arabia, and again, this administration will 
walk away from any blame. They are going to do what they do best. They 
are going to blame the enlisted personnel. They are going to say, it 
was that commander on scene

[[Page H10501]]

who should have done more to protect our troops. They are going to say 
that he should have taken more steps.
  Madam Speaker, what about Secretary Perry? Because if we look at this 
report, it says that it was not just the commander who had 
responsibility, it was the CINC commander. Yet Secretary Perry has 
defended the CINC commander, probably because he reports directly to 
Secretary Perry.
  Madam Speaker, what amazes me the most is this administration, to 
anyone visiting Washington, this administration is going to extreme 
lengths to surround the White House so you cannot get near it. You 
cannot drive within blocks of the White House, because this President 
wants himself protected.

                              {time}  1945

  Why did this President not take the same steps when we had the 
bombing in November of 1995 that killed our troops, when we lost the 
troops in Somalia because, as Les Aspin said, it was not politically 
correct in Washington to send additional backup support?
  Any why did this President and this Secretary of Defense not provide 
more support for those men and women that could have prevented that 
bombing from occurring? We are going to ask those questions tomorrow, 
Madam Speaker. In my opinion, the buck does not stop with that onsite 
commander. The buck stops not just with Bill Perry. The buck also stops 
with the President of the United States. As we have seen time and 
again, this administration thumbs its nose at our military, uses it 
when it can for its political purposes, and then walks away from 
responsibility when incidents occur where we lose lives or we have 
situations that threaten our security.
  Madam Speaker, irregardless of what happens in this election, and I 
know who is going to win, and it is not going to be the current 
President, we have got to send a signal that we are not going to 
tolerate the blame game any longer.
  One thing this administration does well and it does it over and over 
again, from Whitewater to the scandals involving the FBI files, to the 
scandals in the White House that were elaborated upon in the 
Congressional Record last Wednesday, some 39 of them, in every case, 
what does our President say?
  ``It's not my fault. I didn't have anything to do with that. It was 
somebody else.'' And again tomorrow, we are going to hear from this 
administration that it was not their fault, it was some on-scene 
commander in Saudi Arabia doing his job who they are now going to 
court-martial because they want him to walk away with all of the blame. 
And meanwhile Secretary Perry and this administration will walk away 
again saying, ``It wasn't our fault. We didn't have anything to do with 
it.''
  Madam Speaker, I hope that this country understands what is going on 
in Washington. We have a President who will take credit for everything. 
When it does not rain in Washington, he will say that it was his doing. 
When the economy grows, he will say it was all his doing. But when 
there is blame to be had, this President walks away and hides. It is 
outrageous.

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