EXTENSIONS of REMARKS 5791 EXTENSIONS of REMARKS a STATE of DISUNION He Could Not Bring Himself to Appear on Vote in Decreasing Percentages
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March 15, 1984 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 5791 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS A STATE OF DISUNION he could not bring himself to appear on vote in decreasing percentages. As we move camera as though defeat were victory. Yet from campaign to campaign, the likely on camera or in print, in domestic as well as victor is the candidate who can most nimbly HON. JOHN BRYANT foreign policy, the Reagan appeals, each of manipulate the events of a few months in a OF TEXAS them carefully crafted to the present cam single year to influence the voting of a few IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES paign, all emphasize the temporary gain, hours on a single day. the plausible hype, the sham argument. The Reagan is the best pretender as president Thursday, March 15, 1984 administration blithely assumes that the that we have had in modem history. Some • Mr. BRYANT. Mr. Speaker, I call to public and the press have short memories White House aides talk of "the peace issue" the attention of my colleagues and the and almost no attention span. The president as if it were mostly a political problem for people of this country the following himself seems to worry not at all about the Ronald Reagan. Others openly imply that EDwARD credibility gap between the rhetoric of the they only need to play for time before comments of Senator M. KEN 1980 Reagan campaign and the realities of launching a wider war in Central America in NEDY about the President's record 1984. In 1980, we were told that a supply 1985, which would be a tragic replay of the versus the rhetoric of his recent State side tax cut would generate new savings and fateful mistake of two decades ago in Indo of the Union Address, which were pub new revenue, and that by the end of 1983, china. Administration officials are talking lished as a guest column this month in we would have a balanced budget. Today, peace in 1984 as a prelude to making war in a national magazine. the savings rate has dropped to the lowest 1985. [From Rolling Stone, Mar. 15, 19841 level in twenty-five years, and we have the To lessen fears about an administration highest federal deficit in history. whose officials have spoken of winnable nu A STATE OF DISUNION They say we have a low inflation rate, but clear conflict, the president says he now <By Edward M. Kennedy> so did Herbert Hoover. In fact, you can welcomes arms control. But what faith can Lance Corporal George Dramis, who was always bring inflation down by bringing on voters have that he will pursue this newly the last marine killed in Beirut before Presi a recession, and we have just endured the professed interest in his second term, when dent Ronald Reagan withdrew the forces, deepest recession since the Great Depres he has been so bellicose in his first. was buried in Villas, New Jersey, on the sion of the 1930s. The administration also On the day of the Lebanon retreat, White very day the president made that decision. points to the steepest decline in unemploy House sources explained to a reporter from Many felt, as they heard the news, that Cor ment since World War II, which, in fact, is a the Washington Post that the decision was poral Dramis and 263 of his comrades had result of first creating the highest unem "an effort to salvage one of the administra died in Lebanon not for a reason, but for a ployment of the postwar era, driving mil tion's riskiest political positions in a presi mistake. That, however, was not the mood lions out of the full-time work force so they dential-election year." But maybe we should of Mr. Reagan's statement, which was cast no longer even look for jobs. After having be asking ourselves how this president will in the Orwellian tones that characterize achieved a record level of discouraged and choose to face our adversaries after he no most of his claims as we enter this 1984 dropout workers, who aren't even counted longer has to face the voters at the polls. presidential campaign. Withdrawal, as Mr. in the unemployment rate, the rate of un The commentators almost unanimously Reagan phrased it, was only "redeploy employment will still be higher on Election admire the administration's skill. They ment" and "reconcentrating our forces." Day 1984 than it was on the same day four praise the State of the Union message as a The crumbling Lebanese government was years ago, when Ronald Reagan had taken skillfully mapped path to reelection, not a attempting to "reconstitute itself." The re up the cry, "Jobs, jobs and more jobs." guide to the American future as it can or treat from Beirut, so reminiscent of the There is nothing miraculous or mysterious ought to be. American flight from Saigon, would about a temporary election-year recovery, In the face of all this, how should the "strengthen our ability to do the job we set wrought by unprecedented deficit spending loyal opposition react? How can the Demo out to do." Our ships, themselves potential on a scale unimagined even by extravagant cratic party advance its own prospects as ly vulnerable to a suicide attack, would advocates of Keynesian economics. well as the national purpose? "help assure security in the Beirut area" But in fact, the administration simply ig First, we must challenge ourselves not to where we had not been able to secure the nores the other half of the Keynesian pre accept the conventional terms of the eco safety of our own marines. The shelling scription-that the deficit must be reduced nomic debate. We must decline to let the from the battleship New Jersey-with blun as the economy regains strength. They be election tum on the last economic report of derbuss 16-inch guns that devastate an area lieve they can make it to the election with a October, whose meaning may not outlast the size of a football field and that inevita policy that apparently will please the the next month. Democrats can and should bly take civilian lives-was a way to "peace voters, even if it cannot long continue after do more than brood about the deficits. ful reonciliation." As Orwell predicted, in the ballots are cast and counted. In fact, There are some who suggest that Democrats 1984 "war is peace." there are grim prospects for 1985 and 1986 cannot be trusted to deal with federal defi This description of the events in Beirut, <or perhaps even sooner>: a renewal of infla cits because we have had too many of our which flipped reality on its head, is the tion, or a new interest-rate crunch, or an own. But the present deficits .make the most latest example of the Reagan method of other, even deeper recession. Many econo imprudent Democrat look positively parsi acting: In the face of a crisis gone bad or a mists warn of this, many journalists know monious. The deficit for this year alone problem grown worse, he ad libs, proclaims it-but almost no one writes about it. Mean would pay for a national health-insurance success, and then as things take another while, the president insists that there will plan five times over. turn, twists the facts to fit a new and differ be no tax increase to close the deficit, while When the Reagan administration renews ent claim of progress. Occasionally, the his advisers wink and hint that of course its call for a balanced-budget Constitutional footwork isn't fast enough, and the failures they will bring him around-in 1985. This amendment, Democrats should respond: briefly intrude on the image-making. Incon may be smart politics, but it is dumb eco How can they advance such a proposal gruously, Secretary of State George Shultz nomics. again, when they themselves are the biggest was in Grenada to watch sky-diving demon Even worse, this kind of politics under deficit-spenders in American history? How strations and to celebrate American firepow mines the confidence of Americans in our can they ask the Constitution to balance er as the president announced retreat in system. The process has reached its height the budget when the president cannot do it Lebanon. It was less than three weeks after in the Reagan years, but it infected earlier himself? Mr. Reagan had boasted, in his State of the administrations of both parties. Presidents When the administration demands a line Union speech, that America was now appear more and more tempted to make item veto on spending or a commission to "standing tall." deicisons that will fly till the next election, cut the deficit, Democrats should ask: What This time, Mr. Reagan decided to issue a even if they will falter in the next adminis items would they like to veto? Where are press release from his California ranch tration or fail the next generation. Prom their specific budget reductions? And when rather than address the nation on televi ised one thing, given another, Americans are the president says the problem is domestic sion. Perhaps, in a case this extreme, even increasingly alienated; their register and spending, Democrats must challenge him: e This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by the Member on the floor. 5792 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS March 15, 1984 How can that be, when the deficit is now damental women's rights-for example, the ours-and to argue about who has done $50 billlon larger than all discretionary do right of choice on the issue of abortion-as worse.