[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 72 (Friday, June 5, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H4234]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     A BROKEN BALANCED BUDGET DEAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I offer to the family of Bob 
Hope the sympathy of this House and my personal sympathy in recognition 
of all that he has done to contribute to this country and as well to 
contribute to the many veterans who have benefited from his service.
  Let me also applaud the pages that will be leaving this House at this 
time and thank them so very much for all that they have contributed, 
and wish them very well and will add my request that they come back and 
visit us again.
  Mr. Speaker, today we had an unfortunate experience in this House, 
and the experience was such that I thought it was appropriate to bring 
it to the attention of the American people.
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentlewoman yield?
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.


                    announcement by majority leader

  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman from Texas 
yielding for a moment so that I may make an important announcement.
  Mr. Speaker, earlier today I made an announcement that was erroneous 
regarding a report that Bob Hope had passed away. I want to apologize 
to Bob Hope, his family, and the entire Nation for the erroneous 
announcement made on the House floor today.
  The floor announcement was based on a story which briefly appeared on 
an Associated Press Internet news page this afternoon. They have since 
removed the story.
  Again, Mr. Speaker, I regret this announcement and I look forward to 
many more happy memories from a wonderful entertainer and a 
distinguished American.
  Again, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, with that I will 
gleefully acknowledge that I do not have to offer sympathy to the 
family of Bob Hope and I am joyful about that.
  I do want to provide this very important assessment of where we are 
today and where we are going. And I do that because as the final vote 
was cast on the Kasich Republican budget, I heard applause throughout 
this Chamber. And tragically, I think, those who are not engaged in 
this debate were misguided and misdirected.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a sad day for America. It is the busting of a 
deal, the balanced budget deal that we made in 1997, when many of us 
from both sides of the aisle said that it is a good thing that we bring 
down the deficit, it is a good that we pay off the debt, it is a good 
thing we tighten our belts.
  But for those who applauded, the reason why they may not be 
knowledgeable is because they will not feel the pain until the year 
2003. The young people that we just congratulated as pages, senior 
citizens who will just become 62 or 65, veterans who have come to me in 
my office and said their whole health care package has been reordered 
because of the balanced budget, in the year 2003 they will really feel 
the pain.
  For this budget that was passed today we have the words of the 
chairman of the Senate Committee on the Budget, these are his quotes, 
and I refer to Senator Domenici who said, ``This budget is a mockery.'' 
The Senate appropriations subcommittee chairman, Senator Stevens, 
dismissed it and said, ``I do not know where we are going to get $45 
billion in cuts.''
  Mr. Speaker, this budget cuts veterans, food stamps, and title 20 
another $10 billion. It cuts the help we give in foster care and child 
care that many of our States rely upon. This budget cuts Medicaid so 
that we force people into a system of no health care.
  I wonder how many people realize that in the scheme of the number of 
systems of good health care in the world, that we in America, the 
United States of America, do not even fall in the top 10. The country 
that has the greatest ability of invention and research in medical care 
and health devices, we do not even serve our people as well as European 
nations and Third World nations, and yet we are going to cut Medicaid 
$12 billion.

                              {time}  1600

  What does that do? I am not on Medicaid. It does not bother me, some 
may say. What it does do, it burdens your local public health systems. 
And for those of you who have HMOs who are squeezing you every day, you 
see how it feels when there are throngs of people forced into no health 
care. That is what happened today.
  In addition, might I say that we have not fixed Social Security. We 
have cut food stamps, crop insurance, agricultural research that was 
already passed in a bill, just recently passed today, but we will be 
looking to try and fund those, and yet they have been cut $25 billion.
  Some Members always say that it does not bother me, it does not 
impact me. But when the least of ours are not able to receive the 
services that they need, it does impact those of us who care. The 
balanced budget that we passed in 1997 took into consideration the 
great effort we have made to move people from welfare to work. But yet 
this budget we passed today imposes another $10 billion in temporary 
assistance to needy families. Might I say, it is families that we are 
talking about, men and women and children that we are cutting another 
$10 billion.
  Oh, the economy is doing well, never been probably as active and as 
productive as we can see it today in 1998, but there are years to come. 
There are economic cycles. We have all been through them, the bust in 
California, the oil bust in Houston, the automobile bust in Michigan, 
the various cycles of problems that we have had. This is what you are 
going to face when people come in need to the Federal Government to 
help the States.
  You will have in the year 2003 an enormous cut where services that 
are needed, Medicare and Medicaid and services dealing with welfare to 
work and transportation issues, the money will not be there. That is 
what was voted on today.
  Lastly let me say, Mr. Speaker, we all talk about child care. In my 
community we have 5,000 slots for Head Start. We need 20,000. Yet this 
House has cut Head Start and it has cut job training.
  Mr. Speaker, I would simply say that it would be a good day. It is 
Friday. But it is a tragic day. Those who applauded, I hope that sound 
rings in their ears as America cries out as this budget was passed.

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