[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 85 (Thursday, June 23, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H5098-H5099]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 DEMOCRATS ARE IN TOUCH WITH THE PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Poe). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I was not expecting to come down here 
tonight. I did because I was very upset by some of the comments that 
were made by my Republican colleagues.
  Many of them said that they were not here tonight to attack the 
Democrats and the Democratic Party. In reality, that is exactly what 
they did. And the negative comments that they were making about 
Democrats and what we stand for were, frankly, very offensive to me, 
because I have been here as a Member of Congress for 17 years. And I 
have never seen the Republican Party sink to the depths in terms of 
their attacks on Democrats and their unwillingness to cooperate with 
the Democrats and their abuse of power in this institution.
  One of the things that disturbs me the most is that I have always 
thought that Republicans were very concerned as a party about spending 
money and about deficits. I remember when I was first elected to the 
House of Representatives back in 1988. There were a group of 
Republicans who used to come down on the floor of the House of 
Representatives every night during Special Orders, about this time, and 
would hold up a digital clock and talk about the huge deficits that the 
Federal Government was pursuing and how it continued to go up and how 
it was necessary for the Republicans to take the majority back because 
they would be the only ones that would try to do something about the 
deficit.
  Well, you do not hear that anymore from the Republicans, the party 
that historically, at least in the early days when I was here, seemed 
to be so much concerned about deficits, has essentially ignored the 
issue.
  I hear my Republican colleague saying that it does not matter what 
the deficit is, it does not matter how much it grows, you know, that it 
is just some sort of accounting measure and we can spend all we want 
and we can go into debt and borrow all we want, and it does not make 
any difference.
  In fact, what you find now is Democrats coming down on the floor and 
holding up the same charts and talking about the deficit being at an 
all-time high and the negative impact it is having on this government.
  So I say to my Republican colleagues, what happened to the Republican 
Party that cared about the deficit and was concerned about rampant 
spending? Because they have become the majority now, they can spend 
whatever they want and not worry about the impact on the Federal 
Government over the long term?
  In fact what we see is the Republican Party abandoning its ideals, 
abandoning it principles for the sake, essentially, of just being in 
the majority and in control.
  We have witnessed, as Democrats, efforts on the part of the 
Republicans to simply exclude us from almost every aspect of this 
institution. The gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) who spoke 
before me suggests that she wanted to get together and work together 
with the Democrats.
  How is that possible when Democrats are not allowed to have a hearing 
in committee, when the committee moves forward without allowing 
Democrats to have amendments, when bills come to the floor without the 
opportunity for Democrats to even speak because the amount of time that 
is allowed on the bill for speaking is very limited or practically 
eliminated?
  The fact of the matter is that the Republican majority has no 
interest in reaching out to Democrats and hearing their views. All they 
want to do is force legislation down the throats of the Democratic 
minority and act as if in some way they are reaching out, when in fact 
they are not.
  I heard some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle in the 
last Special Order go on and on about how the economy is so wonderful, 
everything is so rosy, more jobs are being created. I do not know what 
fairy land they live in. When I go back to New Jersey, all I hear about 
from my constituents is how factories have closed and moved overseas; 
how jobs have been outsourced to other countries in Europe and Asia; 
how people are unemployed, and if they have a job, it does not pay as 
much as it used to; about how pensions and health care benefits have 
been reduced.
  And for the Republican to stand up here tonight and talk about their 
accomplishments and how great the economy is, they are simply blind to 
the realities. At one time, Republicans used to look out for the little 
guy. They used to be concerned about what the average American was 
doing, whether or not they had a job, whether or not they, you know, 
were making an income in small-town, in rural America. They have 
forgotten about the little guy.
  All their emphasis as a Republican majority is not on the average 
American, but on the well-to-do American, on the millionaire, on the 
corporate interest. What happened to the Republican Party of Abraham 
Lincoln, of Theodore Roosevelt, of Ronald Reagan for that matter?
  We did not see anything that comes to this floor that looks out for 
the interest of the average person. What we see are tax cuts that go 
primarily to millionaires and corporate interests. We see special 
legislation come up that gives a tax break to someone who happens to 
be, you know, the CEO of a major firm. Whether it is pension policies 
or it is health care policies, everything is oriented toward the 
corporate interest or the interests of the wealthy individuals.
  You know, when you talk about deficits, deficits of the kind that we 
see now are basically crippling the American economy. And I used to 
think that the Republican Party, like the Democratic Party, cared about 
America first. But that is not the case any more.
  Sending jobs overseas is not a problem. Outsourcing jobs, setting up 
free trade agreements that basically allow other countries to take our 
jobs, take our resources, this is the face now of the Republican Party. 
And the saddest thing of all, in my opinion, and this is what I think 
many of my colleagues, why so many of my colleagues on the Democratic 
side were here tonight talking about the war and putting up the faces 
of those who had died in the war, is that Republicans, from what I 
remember, used to be very wary of getting America involved in overseas 
conflicts.
  Throughout the 20th century, the Republican Party, in many cases, was 
what we call isolationist, meaning that they felt very strongly that we 
should not get involved overseas, we should not get involved in wars 
overseas if they were not in our national interest.
  Many Republican Senators and Members of the House of Representatives 
would come to the floor throughout the 20th century, those in 
leadership roles, and question whether America should be involved in 
wars overseas. But we do not see the face of that Republican Party 
anymore.

                              {time}  2100

  We just get involved in wars wherever it happens to be. We do not 
worry about the rationale for the war. We do not worry about the fact 
that so many people died or are wounded or the amount of resources we 
spent on the war.
  My colleagues tonight talked about war in Afghanistan and Iraq as if 
it was going to go on for a long time and last beyond, who knows, 5, 
10, 15, 20 years. What is the cost of that? What is the cost in terms 
of Americans lives and cost in terms of the resources that we have to 
spend in Iraq and in other places that could be spent on domestic 
priorities here, educational needs, health care needs, housing needs 
here at home as opposed to the billions and billions of dollars that 
are being spent in Iraq?
  Do not tell me that we should not think about how we are going to end 
the Iraq war and how we can end it soon, because every American life 
that is lost and every dollar that is spent over there could possibly, 
that dollar

[[Page H5099]]

could be spent here and that life could be saved. And I would like to 
know what happened to the Republican Party that used to question our 
involvement overseas, that used to worry about how much we spent, that 
used to worry about how many lives would be lost, that suggested that 
we should only be involved in overseas wars if our national interest 
was at stake? I do not hear about that Republican Party anymore.
  War is supposed to be a last resort. Many Republicans used to say 
that. They do not say that anymore.
  So I will say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, it is 
not the Democratic Party that has changed. The Democratic Party is 
still looking out for the little guy. The Democratic Party is still 
concerned about our economy and our jobs and putting America first. It 
is the Republican Party that, in fact, has lost sight of that with the 
Republican leadership that we see here running the House of 
Representatives.
  And I could go on and on. I do not really seek to, because I am not 
interested in being negative. I would rather be positive. I would like 
to see the day when we get together and work on issues together. But 
the only way that that can happen is if the Republican majority and its 
leadership allows the Democrats to participate, allows the Democrats to 
provide ideas, allows Democrats to speak, allows Democrats to propose 
amendments. That is not what we are seeing.
  It was very interesting tonight because when we had the first Special 
Order and we began to read the names of those soldiers who had died in 
Iraq, there were both Democrats and Republicans on the floor. It was my 
colleague, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones) who voted for 
the war but says now that it is time to get out. And I think what is 
beginning to happen here is that there are some Republicans who are 
beginning to realize the Democrats are right; that it is time for us to 
get out of Iraq; that we have to have an exit strategy; that there is 
too much abuse of power on the part of the Republican majority; that in 
fact too much of Republican policy is aimed towards helping the 
millionaire and the big-shot rather than the little guy; that there is 
too much emphasis on the Republican side in terms of Republican policy 
about worrying about free trade and whether or not we can get something 
cheaper done overseas instead of trying to protect a job for Americans 
here at home.
  And there are some Republicans who have expressed interest and 
concern about the deficit and the crippling impact it has on the 
economy and, in fact, that the economy is not that good. So there is 
hope here.
  I would like to end on a positive note because I do believe that 
there are members of the Republican Party, my colleagues on the other 
side, that now realize that on many of these policy issues Democrats 
are right. And, hopefully, we can forge a bipartisan leadership that 
will address some of these issues in a positive way. But it is only 
going to begin when my colleagues on the other side realize that they 
have to give an opportunity for Democrats to speak, that they cannot 
abuse the power of their majority. And we are not there yet, but 
hopefully we can be in the next few weeks or the next few months before 
this session of Congress is over.

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