[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 137 (Saturday, September 28, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S11616]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            POLITICAL GAMES

  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I want to tell you that I appreciate the 
comments of the Senator from New Hampshire. Certainly, this needs to be 
talked about. I have never seen anything quite like what is happening 
to us here at the end of this session. The idea that those on the other 
side of the aisle, the administration and the Democrats, would hold up 
progress over the last 3 weeks, as they have, by having 100 amendments 
to every appropriations bill, most of them not at all attached to the 
subject, simply to hold it up to bring us up to the edge of this 
business of shutting down Government, which they found to be a great 
political advantage last year, is absurd.
  I have never seen anything like this in my life. The Senator from New 
Hampshire is exactly right. They have extracted $6.5 billion in 
additional spending simply by threatening--not on the merits of the 
spending--to close down the Government and blame the Republicans. I 
have never seen anything quite like that kind of deception--the idea 
that, for instance, talking about reducing the deficit and at the same 
time increasing deficit spending by $5.5 billion, reduce the deficit 
only by raising taxes--the largest tax increase we have ever had--and 
talk about reducing the numbers of employment when, in fact, almost all 
of it was as a result of base closures and civilian employees of DOD, 
and the end of the Resolution Trust Corporation, which had nothing to 
do with this President.

  So that is where we are. I am just delighted that the Senator from 
New Hampshire, who has hands-on experience with this expenditure, as 
chairman of the subcommittee, has talked about where we are and where 
we need to go.

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