[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 143 (Sunday, October 11, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H10527-H10528]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     WHAT IS GOING ON IN CONGRESS?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, it is interesting to be here on a Sunday 
afternoon after watching the talking heads on television this morning. 
I listened to the distinguished gentleman from Oklahoma who cannot 
understand the gentleman from Connecticut's outrage at what has 
happened in the medical system. I am a physician and you are a 
physician. I have spent time on telephones calling Omaha, Nebraska 
trying to get additional time for my patients in hospitals. I 
understand. It does take a persistent doctor. But it should not be 
necessary for you and I and all our colleagues in the medical 
profession to spend their time arguing with some bureaucrat who has 
never seen the patient making a decision about how long you can keep a 
patient in the hospital. I think the American people understand that. 
They understand that doctors have somebody between them and the 
patient. It is always an insurance company person. The failure of this 
Congress, even if you want to take your bill, your patient protection 
bill, you could not get it through the Senate. You guys did not come 
around here enough. The majority party cannot work with the majority 
party in the Senate to get something done. It is an absolute failure. 
There is an article here in the newspaper today. It is an analysis, it 
is on the editorial page of the New York Times. I will enter it in the 
Record. It is by Mr. Herbert. It is called the GOP Cover Story. He 
talks about the impeachment the other day. He says,

       It was, frankly, chilling. To watch Newt Gingrich presiding 
     over the possible impeachment of a Democratic President, even 
     one as spectacularly vulnerable as Bill Clinton, is insane.

  He said,

       This is the same Newt Gingrich who several years ago told a 
     group of young Republicans: ``I think one of the great 
     problems we have in the Republican Party is that we don't 
     encourage you to be nasty. We encourage you to be neat, 
     obedient, loyal, faithful

[[Page H10528]]

     and all those Boy Scout words, which would be great around 
     the campfire but lousy in politics.''
  And then he says,

       The Republican Party, refashioned by Mr. Gingrich and his 
     right-wing cronies, no longer has that problem. Since winning 
     control of Congress in 1994, it has consistently pursued a 
     mean-spirited extremist agenda and is now determined to turn 
     the self-inflicted wounds of the President into an even 
     larger majority.

  Now, he says and this is what the American people should be thinking 
about:

       Try to imagine the implications of a bigger, more powerful, 
     more aggressive, more right-wing regime of Republicans in 
     Congress. This is a party that is not content with trying to 
     roll back abortion rights. It is fighting on several fronts 
     against contraception. Just last week the Republican 
     leadership in the House, under pressure from the right, 
     killed a measure that would have required Federal health 
     plans that cover prescription drugs to cover the cost of 
     contraceptives. No one seemed to think it was crazy to have 
     abortion foes opposing a measure that would reduce the need 
     for abortions. They could not grasp that.

  He goes on to talk about the party that fought a meat inspection 
system designed to protect the people from the deadly E. coli. Members 
from my State, where we had children die, lingering deaths of E. coli 
infection voted against increasing meat inspections. I know we do not 
want big government. But there are some things the government should 
do. It should inspect the meat. Children should not die in fast food 
restaurants or in children's hospitals after a month of hospitalization 
of something contracted in a fast food restaurant. There is no 
question.
  He also says,

       Of course, you can't expect much from the Republicans 
     because their whip denounced the Environmental Protection 
     Agency as the Gestapo of the government.

  The Gestapo of the government. This is the kind of talk we get.
  He goes on to talk about the leadership's ethics and talks about a 
whole bunch of things, including one of the leadership who comes out on 
the floor and delivers tobacco checks on the floor to Members of 
Congress. I mean, this is right here on the floor. We talk about why we 
need campaign finance reform. We got Members and the leadership of the 
majority party walking around handing out checks right here on the 
floor, while we are fighting about whether we should do something about 
tobacco. There is lots more but the people ought to be worried about 
what is going on in this Congress.

                           G.O.P. Cover Story

       Throughout Thursday's impeachment debate in the House you 
     could hear the uncharacteristally low-keyed voice of the 
     G.O.P.'s chief inquisitor.
       ``The gentleman from Missouri is recognized for three 
     minutes,'' Newt Gingrich would say. Or he would rap his 
     Speaker's gavel for quiet and ask, oh so formally and 
     respectfully, ``Does the gentleman move the previous 
     question?''
       Every now and then he would smile hideously, reminding us 
     that hypocrisy is as abundant in Washington as fertilizer on 
     the farm.
       It was, frankly, chilling. Newt Gingrich presiding over the 
     possible impeachment of a Democratic President, even one as 
     spectacularly vulnerable as Bill Clinton, is insane.
       This is the same Newt Gingrich who several years ago told a 
     group of young Republicans: ``I think one of the great 
     problems we have in the Republican Party is that we don't 
     encourage you to be nasty. We encourage you to be neat, 
     obedient and loyal and faithful and all those Boy Scout 
     words, which would be great around the campfire but are lousy 
     in politics.''
       The Republican Party, refashioned by Mr. Gingrich and his 
     right-wing cronies, no longer has that problem. Since winning 
     control of Congress in 1994, it has consistently pursued a 
     mean-spirited extremist agenda and is now determined to turn 
     the self-inflicted wounds of Bill Clinton into an even larger 
     majority.
       Try to imagine the implications of a bigger, more powerful, 
     more aggressive, more right-wing regime of Republicans in 
     Congress.
       This is a party that is not content with trying to roll 
     back abortion rights. It is fighting on several fronts 
     against contraception. Just last week the Republican 
     leadership in the House, under pressure from the right, 
     killed a measure that would have required Federal health 
     plans that cover prescription drugs to cover the cost of 
     contraceptives. No one seemed to think it was crazy to have 
     abortion foes opposing a measure that would reduce the need 
     for abortions.
       This is a party that tried to eliminate Federal nutrition 
     standards for school meals and fought hard against a meat 
     inspection system designed to protect the public from the 
     deadly E. coli bacteria.
       It's a party that attacked Medicare and Medicaid and went 
     out of its way to trash the environment. Clean air? Clean 
     water? Forget about it. Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, 
     the majority whip and a sharp critic of Mr. Clinton, 
     denounced the Environmental Protection Agency as the 
     ``Gestapo of the Government.''
       You want ethics? Pull the clips on Mr. Gingrich and learn 
     how not to behave. Or check out John Boehner of Ohio, 
     chairman of the House Republican Conference. I wrote a column 
     in 1996 describing how he took money from tobacco lobbyists 
     and handed it out to certain of his colleagues on the floor 
     of the House, while the House was in session.
       These are men who couldn't find the high road if they 
     approached it by parachute.
       There is no doubt that Bill Clinton brought his problems on 
     himself. He destroyed his own Presidency. But there are 
     consequences to be paid if the Republicans are allowed to 
     feast too ravenously on the political spoils.
       Democrats have already lost the opportunity to control the 
     campaign season with discussions of such issues as the rights 
     of patients in the era of managed care, the need to move 
     boldly to rebuild the public school system, the concerns of 
     working Americans in a chaotic economic environment and the 
     outlook for Social Security.
       Having been handed the gift of Monica Lewinsky, the 
     Republicans are running with her. She conceals their real 
     agenda. If they can parlay the Monica madness into 
     substantially increased majorities in the House and Senate, 
     they can renew their conservative assault on government and 
     their submersion of the interests of ordinary working 
     Americans and the poor.
       Keep in mind that this is a party that crafted 
     extraordinary tax breaks for billionaires while claiming the 
     sky would fall if the minimum wage was raised to $5.25 an 
     hour.
       Bill Clinton and the Democrats fended off the most extreme 
     aspects of the so-called Republican revolution of the mid-
     90s'. Now Mr. Clinton has given the right-wingers the 
     opportunity to take care of their unfinished business. Only 
     the voters stand in the way.

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