[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18821-18822]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOLEY. Madam Speaker, I am delighted to speak before the Congress 
today and the American people, and I would like to obviously go back to 
a subject of importance, but before I do I think it was very important 
the comments of the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson) 
about prescription drugs. It is timely. It is important. I would remind 
all those listening, though, that we have been here, at least with this 
administration, for almost 7\3/4\ years and just in the last several 
months have we seen conversation relative to prescription drugs.
  The gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson) quoted some 
statistics showing the increase in inflation and cost of drugs year in 
and year out, and she is correct. They have been going up year in and 
year out, but only in an election year did they finally come forward 
with a plan that would provide some degree of prescription drug 
coverage, but one has to read the plan to see exactly what it entails 
and make certain they are not getting trapped in another big government 
program.
  I would remind the listeners that the Vice President in Florida made 
some comparisons about his mother-in-law and his dog taking a certain 
drug. Obviously those statistics and facts are not true. They were not 
true. They did not apply, but that did not keep him from saying them.
  So I, again, in day two of veracity watch, will call attention to 
another claim made by the Vice President regarding Mr. Bush's tax plan. 
However, as many know now, the information was misleading, incorrect or 
not even relative. In Washington, a tax research group questioned the 
manner in which Mr. Gore is using its numbers to attack Mr. Bush. The 
Vice President says the average working American would save just 62 
cents a day under his opponent's tax plan but Bob McIntyre, director of 
Citizens for Tax Justice, said the Democratic Presidential candidate is 
not representing his information correctly. It is a stretch I would not 
make, and that is a labor-financed group that made the calculations.

[[Page 18822]]

  Even that group suggests that the governor of Texas's plan would 
bring $1.24 in savings to the average worker.
  Now the other day, in fact in this morning's paper, the Vice 
President says he will fix the oil crisis if elected. Well, as far as I 
could tell he is elected Vice President today and has been for the last 
8 years and today we are experiencing the highest prices of fuel oil, 
home heating oil in 10 years. So I would ask all those soccer moms who 
participated in the last election to look at your gas statements, look 
at your credit card receipts and see how much they are paying for gas 
today as they did in 1996, and see if in fact the plan offered by the 
Vice President will be coming much too late for changing their family's 
budget.
  He will make specific policy announcements to deal with the crisis, 
right here, right now, said his spokesperson. Well, the problem has 
been going on for some time, in fact a couple of years. We have had 
hearings, we have had testimony.
  We brought Mr. Richardson before the Congress, but to no avail. We 
are still seeing high oil prices and no resolution to this crisis.
  Now, Mr. Lehane, who is Mr. Gore's spokesman, boy, if you elect the 
other team they will transform the Oval Office into the big oil office. 
I do not think that is going to happen, but maybe if it does we will 
start seeing a reduction in prices for fuel oil and maybe the American 
consumers can see some relief.
  The point is today, I want to make certain that people are at least 
using facts and statistics correctly, because I come from Florida where 
senior citizens do not need to be frightened and do not need to be 
scared. Back in 1992, then Governor Lawton Chiles, Democrat running for 
reelection, his campaign launched a series of telephone ads or at least 
telephone solicitations to voters urging them not to vote for then 
candidate Jeb Bush, because they said, in fact, if you elect Jeb Bush 
he is going to take away your Social Security. That is absolutely, 
patently false. The governor of the State of Florida does not have 
anything to do with Social Security, but the claim was made and it was 
done by the campaign. After the campaign, Governor Chiles apologized 
for the misinformation, dissemination of unfactual material but, once 
again, now we have the Vice President going to Florida, quoting 
statistics about a dog and his mother-in-law and I think it is 
reprehensible because it is all designed to scare seniors, make them 
nervous, make them feel like nobody is looking out for them.
  My grandmother came from Poland. She died with $10,000 in the bank. 
She desperately needed Medicare. She desperately needed Social 
Security. She went to her grave with a measly $10,000 in life savings 
having worked as hard as she could as a maid in a Travel Lodge Motel. 
It is for people like my grandmother I am concerned about because I do 
not want them to die in poverty. I do not want them to have to be 
worried about prescription drugs. I do not want them to have to worry 
about Social Security. I did not get elected as a Republican to come 
here and destroy those very important programs.

                              {time}  1400

  But it is troubling to me that a person running for office can make 
up stories, create characters, fictitious ideas, fictitious people, 
using them as examples of the problems that are maybe facing America.

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