[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 15]
[House]
[Pages 20952-20953]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            THE STATUS OF AMERICA AND RANCOROUS CAMPAIGNING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Culberson). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Berry) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning with great concern. As my 
colleague from North Carolina has just referred to, we are a Nation at 
war. We are faced with acts of terrorism around the world at home and 
abroad. We have unprecedented random acts of violence, and we have the 
worst economy that this country has seen in 50 years.
  We have got political campaigns going on all over this Nation. When I 
have had the opportunity to see some of these campaigns in action, and 
we see the political advertisements that are on television and the 
various and sundry activities that are taking place, mostly it is 
negative. Mostly, it is attacking each other, the Republicans and the 
Democrats going after each other and declaring in some way or other 
what a horrible person the other one might be.

                              {time}  1015

  I have to say today, Mr. Speaker, that the issues that face us today 
are not partisan. We should be focused and concentrating on some very 
serious issues, but they are not partisan issues. It is time for this 
Congress and this country to come together, unified, and deal with 
these very serious problems that we face.
  It is not a partisan issue for senior citizens in Arkansas in the 
First Congressional District to not be able to afford their medicine 
that they need to stay healthy, stay alive, and have a decent life. It 
is not a partisan issue that this country continues to allow the 
prescription drug manufacturers to rob our senior citizens. It is not a 
partisan issue that our farmers are more economically distressed than 
they have been since the Great Depression. Our farmers do a wonderful 
job. We have a farm program that is just really not adequate. But never 
in the history of this country has it been more important to have the 
ability to produce the food and fiber that we need in our own land.
  Our manufacturers are distressed because of foreign competition 
because the value of the dollar, just like it affects the farmers, 
makes them not competitive in the international marketplace. Our health 
care system, because of the failure of this Congress to rescind cuts 
for Medicare reimbursements to our hospitals and doctors, is 
threatened. We have rural hospitals and rural providers of all kinds 
that do not know whether they are going to be able to continue to 
provide Medicare services or not because the reimbursement rates are so 
low.
  We are faced with having to make a decision to reduce the amount of 
money that is going to be spent on Federal highways very soon if this 
economy does not improve dramatically. These are not partisan issues. 
If you do not have a road to get there on, it does not matter whether 
you are a Democrat or a Republican.
  The First Congressional District of Arkansas benefits more from good 
highways than almost any place in the country. And yet we have to 
struggle to get the money to accomplish the task that we have at hand, 
and that is to complete good four-lane highways across the First 
Congressional District.
  We know that our education system is going to be underfunded because 
of cuts that have been made in the budget and expected cuts that will 
be made in appropriations. Our debt has grown out of control and we 
continue to borrow from our children and grandchildren and pass the 
burden on to them rather than come together, Democrats and Republicans 
on the floor of this House, and come to a consensus agreement on how we 
should deal with these serious issues.
  We know how to fight a war. We will figure out and we are figuring 
out how

[[Page 20953]]

to deal with terrorism, and we will get those jobs done, and we should 
get those jobs done; and we should spare no resources to accomplish 
that task. But for the domestic economy, for the things that affect 
Americans and Arkansans and the citizens of the First Congressional 
District of Arkansas, we should be working on a plan today; and right 
now no one is working on a plan to deal with this great economic 
distress that we face. We know it continues to get worse.
  We have begged. We have begged both sides. I belong to the Blue Dog 
Coalition; and we have encouraged both sides, come together, let us 
develop a plan. Let us do what is good for America and get the job 
done.

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