H 4552 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE May 9, 1995

TAKING THE COWBOY HAT OFF

THE MILITIA PROBLEM

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under

the Speaker’s announced policy of January 4, 1995, the gentlewoman from

Colorado [Mrs. SCHROEDER] is recognized during morning business for 5

minutes.

Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I

rise at this time to take the cowboy

hat off the militia problem that the

Speaker tried to put on it this weekend

on national television.

For any of you who were watching

the Speaker this weekend on national

television, he said, ‘We have to understand there is in rural America, particularly in the West, a genuine fear of

the Federal Government.’’ He added

that this genuine fear seemed to be

driving otherwise average Westerners

into the Rocky Mountains to create

some kind of a Rocky Mountain guerrilla group or some such thing.

Well, I rise to say that is not true,

that that is an extremist position in

the West, and that we in the West are

not encouraging that type of thing. I

also find all of this very interesting,

because I would be terribly surprised if

the Speaker or any other Member of

this body rose to talk about the genuine fear of the Crips and the Bloods or

the genuine fear of the Members of the

Aryan Nation, or the genuine fear of

the Ku Klux Klan, or on and on and on.

We would tell them all to grow up and

get a life.

Now, what about these militias and

what about the paranoid style of politics that has been practiced by some of

these overgrown, overaged, GI Joes

that appear to be rather on a lost patrol? Well, first of all, unfortunately, it

is not a regional phenomenon. They are

not all hunkered into the Rocky Mountains. The militia pup tents have raised

their heads all over the country. They

are in Georgia, they are in New York,

they are in Michigan, they are in Montana, and, yes, unfortunately, they are

in my State too. So let us not try and

just put a cowboy hat on it. Let us deal

with the fact that they are everywhere.

Let us not romanticize this. Let us realize that this is not a genuine fear,

this is ridiculous, and this is paranoid

politics at its absolute worse.

The second part that comes into all

of this is an attempt to try and draw

some kind of a urban-rural, and therefore Western-Eastern, polarization on

this. What I want to point out is the

Rocky Mountain States are 71 percent

urban. That may come as a surprise to

people that Arizona is more urban that

Ohio, and Neavada as urban as Pennsylvania. That even a hot topic of banning assault weapons that people often

want to say is impossible to do in the

West, when you poll, you find people in

the Rocky Mountain States poll the

same as any other State. So those kind

of regional differences do not pan out.

Finally, the paranoid fear of government is an extremist position, and

every one of us ought to say that. People who have a fear of government

should go to the ballot box and not

their bullets. Ballots, not bullets, is

the way to approach this government. I

am very troubled when I hear people

saying that we should accept this, pat

people on the head, and not take it on.

I am especially surprised the Speaker

has not done more to abuse the notion

of this paranoia. I really hope that all

of us in this body look at what we

might be contributing to this kind of

paranoia and ask if we are. As Pogo

once said to us, we ought to look in the

mirror and meet the enemy and find

out if it is us.

I hope all of this regionalistic romanticism and everything else stops, and

we start saying there is no reason to be

paranoid about a democratic form of

government.

Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. Speaker, will

the gentlewoman yield?

Mrs. SCHROEDER. I yield to the gentleman from Montana.

Mr. WILLIAMS. As the gentlewoman

knows, I represent Montana, all of it,

the little bit of urban we have out

there and the lot of rural we have. Like

the gentlewoman, I, too, was watching

television and heard Speaker GINGRICH

make his latest in a series of wedge

statements, in which he seemed to try

to divide the West out as a place that

was somewhat paranoid about the Federal Government. I do not know what

part of the West our good Speaker was

talking about, but he was not talking

about Montana.

Montanans are frightened by the militia, not the Federal Government.

Montanans are frightened by outlaws,

not by those who would enforce the law

at local, county, State and Federal levels. My Montanans, as with your constituents in Colorado and our colleagues and constituents throughout

the West, recognize full well that the

West, for the most part, has been a

wonderful partner in having settled

and developed the West. The Federal

Government plumbed the West. We are,

after all, a hydraulic society that insists on making the deserts flourish. It

is the Federal Government that set out

the Interstate Highway Systems and

has done so much to help the economy

of the West, and we appreciate the involvement of the Federal Government.

We do not fear it.

Mrs. SCHROEDER. Nor do we in Colorado.

SUDDENLY A CRISIS IN MEDICARE

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a

fprevious order of the House, the gentleman from Oregon [Mr. DEFAZIO] is

recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. DEFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, suddenly

the Republican leadership has discovered a crisis in the funding of Medicare, and they want to fix it. Well, they

are not sure they want to fix it. They

want the President to make a proposal

to cut Medicare spending over the next

decade. They want the Democrats in

Congress to make a proposal to cut

Medicare spending over the next decade. Maybe they want a bipartisan

commission to make proposals to cut

Medicare spending over the next decade.

The bottom line is they want someone to come out and get ahead of them

and propose cuts in Medicare spending

over the next decade, under the guise

of saving Medicare from bankruptcy, a

new crisis that no one could have anticipated a year ago during the health

care debate. A year ago during the

health care debate, we heard from Republican leaders on both sides of the

Hill that there is no crisis in health

care in America, none at all. We need

no congressional action regarding

health care. That was only 12 months

ago.

More recently, we had the much

vaunted Contract on America, which

laid out the 10 most important issues

confronting the United States of America, the 10 must-do pieces of legislation

to bring our country into the next century. And you know what? Medicare

was not on the list. I guess there was

not a crisis in Medicare, or at least

they did not know about it, when they

were writing the contract.

Then we brought the contract to the

floor again. Still, no mention of Medicare. We brought a dire emergency supplemental spending bill to the floor of

the House; $2.3 billion additional for

the Pentagon, because you cannot ask

the Pentagon to do anything without

giving them more money. We add a few

billions of dollars for the crisis in California, for the earthquakes and the

floods and various and assorted sundry

other things that Congress always

throws in when we do a dire emergency

supplemental spending bill, but not a

penny for Medicare. I guess 2 months

ago there was not a crisis in Medicare.

What has happened since is the Republican leadership in this House

pushed through a bill cutting revenues,

cutting taxes, by $340 billion over the

next 5 years. And guess what? Now

they think we need to cut Medicare

somewhere in the vicinity of $300 billion. But there is no linkage. There is

no linkage between the massive tax

cuts which they shoved through this

Chamber for the largest, most profitable corporations, for foreign and multinational corporations, for people

earning $200,000 a year, under the guise

of some scant relief for middle income

families and people with children. No,

there was no crisis in Medicare then.

But now there is.

Suddenly there is a crisis in Medicare

that just happens to come close to the

amount of money that is proposed in

the massive tax cuts. The crisis has

come now because they have sat down

and tried to write their budget, and

they found out you cannot hold the

Pentagon harmless and in fact increase

their spending, you cannot hold all of

that massive part of the Federal budget harmless. You cannot deal with the

existing debt and the interest payments, and you cannot cut taxes and
May 9, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE H 4553

balance the budget. It just simply is

not there.

So suddenly we have a crisis in Medicare that cries out for immediate action, for immediate cuts totaling 80

percent of the money they need to fund

their tax cuts. No, the crisis is not so

much in Medicare, and it is not a new

crisis. In fact, Medicare, according to

the trustees, is in better condition

today than it was a year ago. They

have put off its potential insolvency

for 12 months into the next century.

No, the crisis is in the corporate

board rooms. The crisis is in the country club cocktail lounges. The crisis is

that the Republicans in their contract

promised the most powerful and the

most wealthy and the most well off

Americans a nice, big, fat, juicy tax

cut, and they promised everybody else

in America they would balance the

budget. And now they want to balance

the budget on the backs of the seniors

by cutting Medicare to fund their tax

cuts.

Congress is going to say no to this

outrage, this new abomination worse

than the worst aspects of the first 100

days of this Congress.

fRECESS

The SPEAKER pro tempore. There

being no further requests for morning

business, pursuant to clause 12, rule I,

the House will stand in recess until 2

p.m.

Accordingly (at 1 o’clock and 5 minutes p.m.), the House stood in recess

until 2 p.m.

fb 1400

AFTER RECESS

The recess having expired, the House

was called to order by the Speaker pro

tempore [Mr. E

fWING] at 2 p.m.

PRAYER

The Chaplain, Rev. James David

Ford, D.D., offered the following prayer:

We are reminded during these days of

the momentous occasion of the ending

of conflict in Europe 50 years ago. As

our thoughts go out in thanksgiving

for the blessings of peace, we remember

specially those members of our Armed

Forces whose dedication and sacrifice

brought new hope to so many people

who had known destitution and suffering and death. We laud all those who

labored for freedom and recall with

praise their commitment and their allegiance to liberty. O gracious God,

whose power created the Heavens and

the Earth and whose grace is all about,

may Your blessing be upon those who

gave of themselves that others might

live. In Your name, we pray. Amen.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The

THE JOURNAL

fChair has examined the Journal of the

last day’s proceedings and announces

to the House his approval thereof.

Pursuant to clause 1, rule I, the Journal stands approved.

Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to

clause 1, rule I, I demand a vote on

agreeing to the Chair’s approval of the

Journal.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The

question is on the Chair’s approval of

the Journal.

The question was taken; and the

Speaker pro tempore announced that

the ayes appeared to have it.

Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, I object to

the vote on the ground that a quorum

is not present and make the point of

order that a quorum is not present.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 5, rule I, further proceedings on this vote will be postponed and

the vote will be taken later today.

The point of no quorum is considered

withdrawn.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Will the

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

fgentleman from Ohio [Mr. CHABOT]

come forward and lead the House in the

Pledge of Allegiance.

Mr. CHABOT led the Pledge of Allegiance as follows:

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for

which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

A message from the Senate by Mr.

MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE

fLundregan, one of its clerks, announced that the Senate had passed

without amendment a concurrent resolution of the House of the following

title:

H. Con. Res. 53. Concurrent resolution expressing the sense of the Congress regarding

a private visit by President Lee Teng-hui of

the Republic of China on Taiwan to the United States.

The message also announced that the

Senate had passed a bill of the following title, in which the concurrence of

the House is requested:

S. 103. An act entitled the ‘‘Lost Creek

Land Exchange Act of 1995’’.

The message also announced that

pursuant to sections 1928a–1928d of title

22, United States Code, as amended, the

Chair, on behalf of the Vice President,

appoints Mr. MURKOWSKI, Mr. BROWN,

Mr. GREGG, Mrs. HUTCHISON, Mr. JOHNSTON, Mr. PRYOR, and Mr. AKAKA as

members of the Senate delegation to

the North Atlantic Assembly Spring

Meeting during the First Session of the

One Hundred Fourth Congress, to be

held in Budapest, Hungary, May 25–29,

1995.

The message also announced that

pursuant to sections 276h–276k of title

22, United States Code, as amended, the

Chair, on behalf of the Vice President,

appoints Mr. BINGAMAN as a member of

the Senate delegation to the MexicoUnited States Interparliamentary

Group during the First Session of the

One Hundred Fourth Congress, to be

held in Tucson, AZ, May 12–14, 1995.

The message also announced that

pursuant to sections 276d–276g of title

22, United States Code, as amended, the

Chair on behalf of the Vice President,

appoints Mr. GRASSLEY and Mrs.

HUTCHISON to the Senate delegation to

the Canada-United States

Interparliamentary Group during the

First Session of the One Hundred

Fourth Congress, to be held in Huntsville, ON, Canada, May 18–22, 1995.

The message also announced that

pursuant to sections 276d–276g of title

22, United States Code, as amended, the

Chair, on behalf of the Vice President,

appoints Mrs. MURRAY as vice chairman of the Senate delegation to the

Canada-United States Interparlia

mentary Group during the One Hundred Fourth Congress.

fAWOL

(Mr. DELAY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. DELAY. Mr. Speaker, as President Clinton goes to Moscow, he once

again has dodged his responsibility.

This time, he has failed to exhibit

any leadership when it comes to saving

Medicare.

According to the Medicare Board of

Trustees, a group which includes three

members of the President’s Cabinet,

Medicare will go bankrupt by the year

2002.

Republicans are developing a plan

which will protect, improve and preserve the Medicare system. We will do

this by eliminating fraud and abuse,

while slowing the explosive growth in

costs.

Instead of joining with us in our reform efforts or offering solutions of his

own, the President has gone AWOL.

Yes, he is absent without leadership.

Mr. Speaker, the American people

want real leadership from their President.

They want us to take steps to save

Medicare, not allow its costs to continue to skyrocket to the point of

bankruptcy.

I urge the President to live up to his

responsibilities and work with Congress to save Medicare.

(Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island

REFORMING MEDICARE

fasked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island. Mr.

Speaker, anyone reading the paper or

watching the news last week knows

that Medicare is on the front line in

the battles that lie ahead. Seniors are

watching and what they see is troubling. Yes, we do need to reform Medicare—but there is a right way and a

wrong way. Last year we had the

chance to strengthen Medicare the

right way—in the context of health