[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 143 (Sunday, October 11, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H10531]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  COMMENTS ON CONGRESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, the speaker who preceded me in the well 
waxed eloquent about the President of the United States leaving town 
for a short while tomorrow to do some fund-raising for the Democrats, 
and he took great opprobrium to that. But I would remember twice in 
this Congress in the midst of the legislative session when the House 
went out of session, in the middle of the week, on a Wednesday at 4 
o'clock in the afternoon, so the Republicans could get on corporate 
jets and fly up to New York for the largest fund-raiser held in the 
history of the United States. Their corporate buddies flew them up 
there. Wasn't that nice?
  What is the result? The work is not done. It is not surprising. 
Congress has been in session 108 days working here in Washington, D.C. 
this year. The average American working for wages has put in 200 days 
so far this year, and they have gotten their job done, every day, day 
in and day out. Congress, having worked under the Republican leadership 
one-half as many days and being paid generously quite more, has not 
gotten its work done.
  There is nothing for the President to sit down and talk to the 
Republican leadership about. The Republican leadership cannot even 
agree among themselves. On the House side they have tried to cut taxes 
by taking the money and stealing it from the Social Security trust 
fund. The Republican leadership in the Senate has wisely chosen not to 
go down that path.
  The Republicans in the House passed a de minimis, not very helpful, 
but better than nothing HMO reform to give patients some little bit of 
rights, nowhere near what we would have done on the majority side or 
even some Republicans wanted to do on their side and were blocked by 
their own leadership. The Senate has denied that.
  So there is no agreement between the Republican leaders of the House, 
the Flat Earth Society, and the Republican leaders of the Senate, those 
who are sometime in the era of Christopher Columbus and discovered the 
Earth is round, but not much further ahead of that in history. They 
cannot agree. So how can the President sit down with a bunch of turkeys 
who cannot agreeing among themselves within their own parts I?
  Yesterday when we were talking about the failure of the Republicans 
to do anything for education, smaller class size, more teachers, 
rebuilding and building schools across America, something that would be 
a real benefit to the American people, when we talked about the failure 
to do anything for patients rights, when we talked about the attacks on 
the Social Security trust fund, the chairman of the Committee on Rules 
jumped up and said, ``That is right, but we have cut taxes.''
  Now, I would ask those who are listening today, are your taxes really 
lower than they were four years ago when the Republicans took power? In 
fact, the answer is no. The first returns on the 1997 Taxpayer Relief 
Act are in. The results are striking.
  Seventeen of the 80 percent, that basically figures out to about 14 
percent of the people earning less than $59,000 a year, got a generous 
tax cut of $6. I hope you did not spend it all in one place. Maybe you 
put it away for retirement or the kids' college. That is great.
  Now, we go after the $59,000 to $112,000 bracket. They did a little 
better, $81. But that is not where the money really went. Guess what? 
Two-thirds of the taxpayer relief under the Republican bill passed last 
year went to people whose incomes average $660,000 a year, and guess 
what? They got $7,135. Now, the families struggling on a $59,000 income 
got $6. The families struggling, the Republican constituency, just 
struggling to make ends meet on $666,000 a year, they got $7,000.

  But, don't worry, they will spend that money in a way to put 
Americans to work. Of course, the Republicans are against any increases 
in the minimum wage and they are following a trade policy which is 
driving down wages in America.
  But they have done great things for the American people, great 
things, but they cannot get their work done here in Washington, D.C. 
They have raised a pile of money, and they want to go home and spend it 
to change the subject from what they have not done in Washington, D.C. 
or what they have done in killing HMO reform, in killing tobacco 
legislation, in attacking the Social Security trust fund, and what they 
have not done for education and what they have not done for average 
working families.
  Shame on the Republican Party.

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