[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 147 (Thursday, October 15, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H10999]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         REASONS TO VOTE NO ON THE OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TAYLOR. Mr. Speaker, it is becoming apparent that this House will 
be called upon to vote on approximately a thousand page document 
tomorrow that is responsible for over half of the appropriations bills 
that should have been passed separately, and it is going to do some 
good things.
  It is also going to have a lot of things buried in it that I think 
none of us could possibly defend when called to task back home. As we 
speak all across America in 435 congressional districts and one-third 
of the Senate seats, people are out there begging for the opportunity 
to serve in the greatest legislative body this world has ever known.
  They are putting their houses up for mortgage. They are selling their 
cars. They are asking friends and relatives for loans. They are doing 
basically anything they can to get the funds to get on television. What 
do they talk about once they get on TV? They talk about $15,000 that 
was squandered here or a million that was squandered there. Many of 
them get elected to this body, and we have got to wonder what happens 
to them then, because the same people who are outraged at the 
squandering of $15,000 or one million will tomorrow vote for a bill 
that is for tens, no, I am sorry, hundreds of billions of dollars and 
they have not the foggiest idea where it is all going.
  They are going to vote for $18 billion for the International Monetary 
Fund, an international rat hole over which we have little or no 
control.

                              {time}  1915

  They are going to vote for farm programs that do not work; 
educational programs that are not necessary, that have little or no 
supervision, and above all ought to be the States' responsibility. They 
are going to vote for things for defense that should have been done, 
absolutely, but should have been done through the normal process where 
the committees can take a look at it and decide whether or not that is 
in the best interest of our country. In short, they are going to try to 
do 2 years' worth of work in one day.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not think one of my constituents would sign a 
document for a $50,000 mortgage that they had not read. I do not think 
one businessman in my district would sign a document for a $10,000 loan 
that he had not read. And yet they are asking the 435 people of this 
body to sign a document that none of us have read.
  The people who have read it are the Speaker of the House, President 
Clinton, and the Majority Leader of the Senate. That is not good enough 
for me. That is not good enough for my constituents.
  So, I am going to encourage my colleagues to vote ``no.'' We have 
stayed here this long. We can stay a little bit longer. And I am going 
to encourage my colleagues to continue to vote ``no'' until we are 
given adequate time to study the measure that is brought before us, and 
then and only then should we be making a decision for over hundreds of 
billions of dollars worth of programs and whether or not it is a good 
idea for our country.

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