[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 25938]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           LET US NOT PRETEND

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, here we are 2 nights after Halloween, more 
than a month after the budget is due, engaged in some sort of bizarre 
charade. Let us not pretend to be working on the budget agreement. Just 
do not pretend anymore. Agreement was reached, last weekend, and the 
Senate Republicans stood behind their negotiators. The Senate Democrats 
stood behind their negotiators. The House Democrats stood behind their 
negotiators. The President stood behind his negotiators. But the 
Republican leaders, at the last second, pulled the plug after the 
phones rang off the hook from the National Association of Manufacturers 
and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who objected to any possibility that 
at some future date even a President Bush, if he gets elected, might 
not have the guts to kill workplace health and safety reforms.
  That is what is going on here, plain and simple. Let us not pretend. 
Do not pretend. The American people do not like lies.

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