[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 149 (Thursday, October 28, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H11073]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 BUDGET GIMMICKS TO HURT ALL AMERICANS

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, today we see the full budget from the 
Republicans. We can see the USS Mississippi, that the Navy does not 
want, sailing into the harbor, and we say we want to cut government 
waste. The Navy does not want that ship.
  What we really have, and the gentleman from Michigan raised it, are 
gimmicks in this budget that are going to hurt every single American. 
This does nothing for Medicare, it does nothing for Social Security. 
What it says to the National Institutes of Health is, we are going to 
give you more, but we are not going to give you one single penny of 
that money until next year on the 28th of September.
  Now, for the average American, imagine if your boss said I am going 
to give you a big increase in your pay, but you do not get any of it 
until next year on the 28th of September. How would you live while you 
waited for that to happen?
  Anybody who is worried about a member of their family who has 
diabetes, HIV, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, if you are waiting for the 
National Institutes of Health to come up with a way to help those 
people, these guys have said, wait for a year. Hold your breath.
  This is a bad bill.

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