[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2301-2302]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             THE PRESIDENT'S BALLOONING CREDIBILITY DEFICIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, in addressing the Republican Governors 
Association fund-raiser last night, the President, in a much-touted 
speech, decided to unveil his reelection strategy. He pointedly accused 
the current front-runner for the Democratic nomination of having a 
record of flip-flopping, waffling and temporizing.
  Since the State of the Union and since Meet the Press, I have been 
waiting for this President to offer a vision and an agenda for this 
country. His strategy has got America stuck in an endless occupation 
and a jobless economy. I thought last night we were going to hear a 
strategy of how to move forward, yet the President of the United 
States, after 3 years of governing, has decided his strategy is to tear 
down his opponent rather than to offer America a vision of tomorrow and 
what we can do to build something tomorrow.
  I thought it was very ironic for a President of the United States, 
who has a growing credibility gap, where people question the validity 
and the very truthfulness of his words, to begin to question the 
consistency of the front-runner for the nomination of the Democratic 
Party. I thought it was very interesting because, if I am not mistaken, 
this was the President of the United States who has flip-flopped on 
steel tariffs. That has been this President's record. He flip-flopped 
within 18 months of having imposed the tariff.
  This is a President who, although promoting tax cuts for the very 
wealthy, called them a middle-class tax cut. We now find out, in Paul 
O'Neill's book and Ron Suskind's book, the President of the United 
States knew that his tax cut went to the top end. He went into a 
meeting, said, ``Haven't we done enough for the top end?'' And yet he 
went out and sold his tax cuts as something else and then accused 
Democrats of class warfare for asking the very same question he had 
asked. And he wants to accuse the Democratic nominee, or near nominee, 
of being a flip-flopper?
  He has a very interesting economic strategy. He is trying to wage 
three wars with three tax cuts and tell us the deficit is a result of 
something else; spending on veterans, police, education, and health 
care. Ever since his tax cuts for $3 trillion, America has added $521 
billion to the deficit, 3 million Americans have lost their jobs, 5 
million additional Americans are without health care, and over $1 
trillion

[[Page 2302]]

worth of corporate assets have been foreclosed on.
  His economic report has now told us that the middle class of India, 
where they are outsourcing jobs, is the primary concern of the 
President's economic report rather than the shrinking middle class in 
Indiana. This is a President who then walked away from that. In Ohio, 
he said manufacturing was his top priority, yet year after year his 
budget cuts the manufacturing extension program which helps small 
businesses.
  This is a President of the United States who on foreign policy took 
the Nation, regardless of whether you are for or against it, to war 
based on weapons of mass destruction, yet we have now found out in two 
State of the Union Addresses that he raises threats that are not true; 
in the State of the Union to the United States, where the world was 
listening.
  The President's credibility gap is stretched even wider by his budget 
that is filled with flip-flops and inconsistencies. He has pledged $3.5 
million in new money for police and firefighters, yet his budget cuts 
$1 billion out of existing grants to local police and firefighters. He 
told us the budget deficit would be manageable, but his plan to halve 
it by the year 2009 is an accounting fiction. Even Goldman Sachs and 
the IMF have blamed the Government of the United States for being a 
danger to the world economy, let alone employment growth here in the 
United States.
  The President told conservatives of his own party that Medicare would 
cost only $400 billion. Within 2 months, the bill was for $537 billion. 
He promised to clean up the Great Lakes on one hand, so he increased 
the funding for $35 million, but with the other hand he cut the State 
Revolving Fund for water cleanup by $400 million. And this is an 
administration that wants to challenge people on the word of 
credibility, on their flip-flops and waffling?
  The only thing this White House never waffles on is when you are a 
special interest and you need a special favor. They have been quite 
consistent if you are a pharmaceutical company, you are a polluter, or 
you are an insurance company or an HMO. So when this President says he 
wants to campaign on somebody's credibility and on their consistency, I 
as one Democrat welcome that, because we have 3 years of a record. This 
President has done a phenomenal job of getting America stuck in a 
jobless recovery and an endless occupation in Iraq.
  This is an election about America's future, not offering the status 
quo that has put America in the position it is. So if credibility is a 
question we are going to have in this campaign, let us bring it on.

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