EXTENSIONS of REMARKS February 4, 1980

1736 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS February 4, 1980 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS A COMPARISON OF WORDS -AND through, no basis in reality, no force of law some astounding statements and entirely . DEEDS or action. indefensible claims. It wa.S said of Winston Churchill that He said that he has "developed a very co during World War II, he enlisted the Eng operative and productive record with Con HON. RICHARD BRUCE CHENEY lish language in the cause of freedom. Presi gress". Such a statement is ludicrous. Most OF WYOMING dent Carter uses the language as an end in of his legislative intiatives, including some itself. His words are just that: words ... 25 he mentioned in his advance statement, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES they have no visible connection with his have yet to see the light of day. Monday, Februar1/4, 1980 action or with events as the rest of the He said, "major parts of a comprehensive world perceives them. energy program have been enacted ..."In e Mr. CHENEY. Mr. Speaker, the dis The State of the Union Address did not three years of inaction and confusion, we tinguished minority whip, Mr. MICHEL, reflect the state of world affairs, nor did it have but one expensive, inefficient Depart delivered an excellent speech recently reveal how the United States would actually ment of Energy to list ·among Mr. Carter's in his home State of Illinois in which react to world affairs. credits. he £ompared the Presi~ent's words to For example, to the Russians it must ~ He said, "We will -continue the steady eco his deeds regarding both domestic and mean little that our President said he wUI nomic policies which have worked to date." foreign affairs. stand up to them in the event of further ag What are these steady economic policies I urge my colleagues to read Mr. MI gression. which have worked to date? CliEL's remarks, which follow: As I assess the Russian hierarchy, they He said, "The deficit for the FY 1981 are not impressed by the threat, but the budget will be less than half of the· FY 1980 REMARKS OF CONGRESSMAN BOB MICHEL probability that the threat will be carried budget deficit and wUI represent a 75 ·per In Washington, those moments following out. President Carter has never stood up to cent reduction from the deficit I inherited." the President's State of the Union Address the Russians, whether they be in Cuba, In This was an insult to our intelligence. Presi to the Congress are as much a ritual as the Ethiopia. Angola. or in Afghanistan-not dent Carter failed by some $20-$30 billion to speech itself. It is during that period that anywhere. The Russians know him and they meet his goal of balancing tpe budget by Members of the House and Senate make the know his record. fiscal year 1981, and the reductions he did race to the television galleries above the Secondly, there is the matter of our will achieve were the result of $61 billion in House floor and line up to express their to react ·versus our ability to react. The higher taxes. views on the speech. state of our conventional forces is of critical He said, "The decline in defense spending The challenge of the members is to come importance in this war of nerves with the has been reversed." An interesting state up with the· catchiest, most descriptive, cap Soviet Union. Regardless of what the Presi ment, given the fact that reduced defense >ulized critique of the President's address. dent says in his speeches, the Soviets know spending was the cornerstone of the Carter He who expresses himself best shares those for a fact that our reserves are down, that presidential campaign three years ago, and precious network news seconds with the our army is poorly equipped, that our Navy has been the hallmark of the Democratic President himself. is barely seaworthy, and that through three Congress since he took office. It is also iri This year's State of the Union ritual was years of capitulation in the SALT negotia teresting ·that President Carter, while a no exception. It was played out like a tions,' the U.S. has steadily disarmed itself, reborn defense spender, has not learned the Broadway performance right up to the in .both strategically and conventionally. importance of getting your money's worth. stant analyses. Futhermore, the Soviets don't have to be He is spending our defense dollars on refur This year, however, there was a signifi told that "an attempt by an outside force to bishing outdated aircraft, building restrict cant difference in the atmosphere. Those gain control of the Persian Gulf region will ed-range cruise missiles, building slow con who are always the quickest with the quot be regarded as an assault on the vital inter ventional aircraft carriers, and deploying an able quotations and biting commentaries ests of the United States,'' and that military MX missile system the wrong way. seemed to be stumbling all over themselves force will be used, if neceSsary, to repel it. Finally, he said inflation isn't his fault be reacting to President Carter's discussions of Nor do the American people have to be told cause the biggest single factor in the infla Iran, Afghanistan, Soviet-American rela that. tion rate increase last year was from sky tions and the rest. I, too,, had an extremely We do need to know, and the Soviets need rocketing OPEC oil prices. He did't tell the difficult time assessing his statements on to know, however, what is meant by an "at American people those oil prices contribut draft registration and the threat of military tempt to gain control of the Persian Gulf". ed no more than 3 points to the 12.7 rate of force against further Soviet aggression. Is it overt military aggression against Iran? inflation. He didn't mention that of 13 in When I got home and heard the newsmen How about the slow subversive, non-military dustrialized nations which are more depend hail the President's remarks as a "complete destruction of a Persian Gulf government? Emt on OPEC than we are, only two of them about face," a "tough message," and a "bold What will the United States respond mili have higher inflation rates. demonstration of American resolve,'~ I sud tarily to, how soon and with what, where? If Japan relies on OPEC for 99.8 percent of denly realized why I had failed the chal we are serious about the Southwest Asian its oil and has a 4.2 percent inflation rate. lenge of the post-State of the Union press crisis. then we have to talk seriously about competition. those questions, and forget the somber, rit West Germany relies on OPEC for 96.8 There really ·wasn't much in President ualistic political rhetoric. We have· to come percent of its oil and has a 5. 7 percent infla Carter's speech to criticize. As are most of back to the real world and face the reasons tion rate. the President's major addresses, it was a why the Soviets are occupying Afghanistan Belgium relies on OPEC for 100 percent of good speech, well-delivered, with something today. its oil and has a 5.1 percent inflation rate. for everyone. It was tailored to the mood of We have had three years of earnest, sin We get 46.8 percent of our oil from OPEC the country. The President said wliat every cere, well-written speeches enuniciating and our inflation rate as I said is 13 percent. one wanted to hear and said it the way ,they American domestic and foreign policies. As The same sad commentary can be made wanted to hear it, firmly. well-intentioned as they might be, the about what President Carter has said and is But the speech was still very troublesome. people at the top in the Carter Administra saying about other major issues, such as na I could not find the words to compliment it tion have been unable to tum policy into tional health, welfare reform and education. any more than I could find reason to criti practice. It has gotten so bad that the enun The words have lost their believabiJity be cize it. I realized that while the speech was ciation of Carter policy is no longer rele cause the J>r~sident . has lost his credibility. well done, it was also thoroughly and utter vant, to the American people, ·to the Con The State of the Union speech reflected ly irrelevent to the times and the situation. gress, and most importantly, to our allies the state of Jimmy Carter's hopes, dreams President Jimmy Carter has joined the and·. adversaries abroad. Now the time of and politicai illusions much more than the ranks of a very select group of American crisis has arrived, and our gestures are real "State of the Union". Presidents whose enunciations of American empty. our words . meaningless and our Since mo~t of the President's speech and policy came to mean absolutely nothing. warnings without weight. the public's attention has focused on inter In the case of this Administration, the This cavernous gap between what the national events I'd like to take a few more speech as a tool of political leadership is President says, and what he does, is not con minutes to recount some recent history so worthless. It has no substance, because for fined to foreign policy. The published, but that those who have already forgotten will the past three years, the president has dem not delivered, State of the Union and the have a better perspective of just why we are onstrated that his speeches have no follow- televised version of the address contained where we are! e This "bullet.

Load more