Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 106th Congress, Second Session, Volume 146, Part 18 Page: 25,851
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November 1, 2000
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE
The problem is the minority does not
like the majority. We love them in the
minority, and we hope that they stay
the minority for many, many years.
There is a difference between the par-
ties. There is a reason that one party is
a majority and the other party is a mi-
nority, but here is an interesting point.
We have come together. There are ar-
guments about whether the President
was in the room or not. He was rep-
resented but he was not in the room.
He was busy doing other things. We un-
derstand that. The President is looking
for whatever he is looking for out there
around the country, mostly money for
campaigns, but let me say what the
President thinks about this Congress.
Some heard me read this last night. I
am going to read it again today, in
view of some of the rather strong dia-
tribes that I have heard here. The
President said on Monday in his press
conference, he said, "Again we have ac-
complished so much in this session of
Congress in a bipartisan fashion. It has
been one of the most productive ses-
sions." Now, if only we could get to the
bipartisanship that he talks about
here. I am glad he feels that way be-
cause on the majority side we have
tried to be bipartisan. We get really ex-
cited when the minority leader comes
to the floor and says, come on guys, we
have to get together. We have to be bi-
partisan and get the work done. But
speaker after speaker after speaker
who followed the minority leader's ad-
monition brought out their vicious par-
tisan attacks on the majority party.
Well, Mr. Speaker, we are the major-
ity; and we have made a decision on
what we believe is the right thing to
do, and we are satisfied that we agreed
with President Clinton when he said
the era of big government is over,
standing right there in the well of the
House.
The era of big government is over.
We are tired of the government being
everything. There is a responsible role
for the government, but it is not to run
everybody's life. Whatever the govern-
ment does should be done in a respon-
sible fashion, and not one that meets
the whims of somebody's political cam-
paign. Political campaigns ought to be
back home on the campaign trail, not
here in the people's House. It is our job
to get the people's work done and put
their work ahead of politics. People
above politics, and that is what we are
going to stand for every day. We are
not going to be stampeded by the polit-
ical rhetoric that comes out of the mi-
nority party who is so anxious to be-
come the majority party again.
Well, people of America are going to
make that decision. They are going to
decide whether they want to go back to
the old days of decades of deficit spend-
ing, interest payments on the national
debt that almost exceed the invest-
ment in our national defense; whether
they want to go back to the days ofraiding the Social Security trust fund
to spend for their big spending pro-
grams. We have stopped that. Our ma-
jority party, the Republican Party, has
stopped that. We are not spending
money out of the Social Security trust
fund. We are paying down the debt. We
have balanced the budget, and, oh, we
had a lot of opposition to what we had
to do to accomplish all of these things,
but we stood fast. We are going to con-
tinue to stand fast for what we believe
in, and the ideals that the American
people agreed with when they made us
the majority party.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to my
friend, the gentleman from California
(Mr. THOMAS), who has an interesting
chart that I think will demonstrate
this.
Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I thank
the gentleman from Florida (Mr.
YOUNG) for yielding me this time.
Mr. Speaker, in an attempt to im-
prove the atmosphere here, I do want
to reach out in a bipartisan way and
indicate to the gentleman from Mary-
land (Mr. HOYER) that he has had ex-
tensive legislative experience here in
this body. He has seen a number of
Presidents in terms of the way they
have performed. He has indicated that
this current President has been more
active, more involved than any other
President that he is aware of. So I
guess I am a little confused, and I
would like to reach out because why
would quotes from third parties then
be relied on, the liberal fourth estate
newspaper folk who have not been in
the room, to try to characterize the
way in which we have operated? Why
would the quote from the gentleman
who has been most involved of any
Presidents be relied on?
So instead of looking at what some
editorial writer writes, who has never
been in the room, let us take a look
again at what this President, who has
been the most active President work-
ing with Congress in the minds of peo-
ple who have been here a long time,
and he said, quote, President Clinton,
on October 30, just a couple of days
ago, "we," we, kind of an encompassing
word, the government, the executive
branch, the legislative branch, "we
have accomplished so much in this ses-
sion of Congress in a bipartisan fash-
ion."
Now I take him at his word, the guy
who has been more involved than any
other President, we have accomplished
so much in this session of Congress in
a bipartisan fashion.
"It," this Congress, "has been one of
the most productive sessions."
Now I know he has only been around
8 years, and others who have been
around longer can grade how produc-
tive the sessions are, but if this Presi-
dent has been the most active of any
President we have seen, I will accept
his judgment. His judgment is, we have
done a lot in a bipartisan fashion. Thishas been one of the most productive
sessions ever. Why rely on third par-
ties? Go to the horse's mouth.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield my-
self 1 minute.
Mr. Speaker, I simply want to con-
gratulate the gentleman from Cali-
fornia (Mr. THOMAS), because that is
the largest stretch I have ever seen. I
want to congratulate them. They have
been so desperate to find any way to
suggest that they have accomplished
anything of significance in this session
of Congress that they even have
stretched to rely on their old reliable
friend, President Clinton, the man to
whom they have given so much sub-
stantive support when in a moment of
conciliatory weakness he engaged in a
little bit of rhetorical hyperbole to say
something nice about the majority.
If that is the best that you can find,
be my guest. The people who serve in
this Chamber know what you have ac-
complished. The people waiting for pre-
scription drugs know what you have
accomplished. The people waiting for a
patients' bill of rights know what you
have accomplished. The people waiting
for a minimum wage bill know what
you have accomplished. On the big
stuff, the result unfortunately is zip.
You passed a lot of stuff through here
that would help the very wealthiest 2
percent on the Tax Code. Outside of
that, you are still dragging behind
about 8-to-0 in terms of meeting your
major responsibilities.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the
distinguished minority leader, the gen-
tleman from Missouri (Mr. GEPHARDT).
(Mr. GEPHARDT asked and was
given permission to revise and extend
his remarks.)
Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, I rise
in support of this continuing resolu-
tion, our twelfth in 5 weeks, to keep
the government operating; but I deeply
regret that we have reached this point
and I am deeply disappointed by what
has happened to America's education
priorities in the last 72 hours.
On Sunday night, after 3 days of no
negotiations, Republicans met face-to-
face with Democrats on a good faith
basis to resolve our differences on edu-
cation. Democrats asked Republicans
whether they had full authority to ne-
gotiate a final deal and they answered,
yes. In an example of bipartisan com-
promise, both sides came together and
both sides sought common ground. Ne-
gotiators toiled late into the evening.
Each side made concessions, as must be
done in a bipartisan compromise, and
consensus was reached through sen-
sible dialogue. I give great credit to
the gentleman from Florida (Mr.
YOUNG), and I give great credit to the
gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. OBEY),
and the Senators who were involved.
The bill that came out of that room
was a bipartisan bill that would have
lifted up every community and every
school in this country. This bill in-
cluded full funding for 100,000 new25851
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United States. Congress. Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 106th Congress, Second Session, Volume 146, Part 18, book, 2000; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc31035/m1/66/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.