[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 135 (Thursday, September 26, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11401-S11402]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THINGS TO BE PROUD OF

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I hope Senators have listened to what the 
two Senators from North Dakota have said here, my two friends from 
North Dakota, first Senator Conrad speaking about where the economy is 
today, defying all the predictions of doom and gloom that we heard when 
the President proposed his first budget plan.
  I have served here now for over 20 years, but I remember during the 
eighties and into the early nineties, the deficits just kept blooming 
and blooming. We heard a lot of rhetoric about bringing deficits down, 
but every year the deficits were considerably higher, the national debt 
quadrupled.
  President Clinton is the first President I served with, the first 
President of either party I served with in 22 years that actually 
brought the deficit down 3 years in a row. It is easy to talk about 
being in favor of a balanced budget and bringing down deficits. It is 
hard to do it.
  The Senators from North Dakota are those who fought hard to bring 
about the tough questions of bringing down the deficit, but they can 
also take great pride in what was done for the American family. We have 
the typical family income up $1,631--that is adjusted for inflation--
since the President's plan passed; household income up. The number of 
people in poverty is way down.
  These are things of which to be proud.
  I will say, in reference to what Senator Dorgan has said, he speaks 
of some of the wondrous things we do in our Government. It is so easy 
for people to go home and denigrate our Government as though they are 
not good men and women who work in it. Think of some of the 
remarkable--remarkable--advances in our ability to live and our health 
care, as the Senator from North Dakota referred to. These did not come 
out of the private sector. These did not come out of thin air. These 
came out of dedicated men and women working and working and working, 
sometimes going down a dead-end alley. I can imagine the number of 
dead-end alleys that Dr. Salk went down before developing the polio 
vaccine, or the number of dead alleys gone down before we found some of 
the advances in curing cancer, and on and on.
  Last Christmastime, when part of this Government closed down, we had 
people who went on television and said, ``Well, who misses the 
Government? Who needs the Government?'' My phones were ringing off the 
hook from people who said, ``Why are you closing down the Government? I 
have a student loan that we are trying to process so that my child can 
go to college, the first one in our family to go to college, but that 
office is closed down.''
  Someone who had a necessity to travel abroad because of a death in 
the family: ``I can't get a passport because that office is closed 
down.''
  And the humiliation of good men and women in my State and everybody

[[Page S11402]]

else's State who have gone to work day after day after day doing the 
best for the greatest country on Earth and being talked about as though 
they were pawns on a political chess board.
  It is time we wake up to the fact that we have the greatest democracy 
history has ever known. It is also a country of 260 million Americans. 
This country doesn't just run by itself. It runs because of a lot of 
very good men and women make it run. They are not helped by those who 
want to make political pawns of them.
  So I probably am naive to assume that there will not be misstatements 
and distortions during the political season now upon us this fall. But 
I think some of those who go home and want to castigate the President 
or want to say, what are those Democrats doing in their spending plans? 
maybe somebody in the audience will stand up and say, let us be clear.

  President Clinton and those who support him brought the deficit down 
4 years in a row. Nobody else has done that in the 22 years I have been 
here. Under that watch, family incomes have gone up. The economy has 
improved. As my friend from North Dakota, Senator Dorgan, pointed out, 
a lot of us are going to live a lot longer and a lot better because of 
those dedicated men and women who put first and foremost the interests 
of their fellow Americans.
  We ought to just think about that, and maybe we ought to lower the 
rhetoric and, instead of looking for people to attack, people to beat 
up on, let us start talking about what is right with this country, what 
is right about what we do here and maybe --maybe--we will find people 
will have more respect for those of us who serve them.
  I think the two Senators from North Dakota have done this body and 
this country a service this afternoon in their statements. I hope more 
will do the same. Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the 
absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Abraham). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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