Jack Kingston

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Is the gentleman saying discharge petitions specifically?

Mr. KINGSTON. As I read this, it allows the Speaker to declare a recess subject to the call of the Chair through the 9th, and then goes on from the 9th to the 12th and the 12th to the 16th.

Mr. KINGSTON. Let me say this, I will give this to the gentleman so that he can read it, because I had not read it earlier today when it was being made.

Mr. KINGSTON. Should the House vote on it? It has been filed with the Committee on Rules. And, as the gentleman knows, I am not on the Committee on Rules and I do not choose to represent them. I just wanted to make sure that my colleagues and friends on that side of the aisle knew that there was more to it than that we were going home until the 23d. Because I, like many of my colleagues, have a lot of concerns about the situation right now and would like to engage with them, if they care to dialog on the budget. What I am concerned about right now is that the interest on the national debt is the third largest expenditure in our entire budget right now. And that interest will exceed military spending in the next 2 years if we do not get it under control. I will be happy to yield in a minute or two on the subject of the budget, because, as I said earlier, I do not want to represent the Committee on Rules on all the fine print of this.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend for 30 seconds, with the abundance of recognition from that side of the aisle that, ordinarily, it is hard for them to yield to us in special hour, so I am doing this in the camaraderie that I think this House needs more than ever.

Mr. KINGSTON. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I will show the gentleman the wording on this, because as it was described at the Chair to me, I was confused about it also. As I see it, it goes on a week-to-weekend, week-to-weekend time period, and it would give the Chair some discretion, yet, at the same time, we would not be going on vacation or recess unless the Chair had that----

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Let me throw that question right back at you: If we cannot lock in forever and this whole thing is going to be reversed in 10 months, then why can we not reopen the Government by you guys voting for the appropriations bills? It is that simple. You want to reopen the Government? Vote for the appropriations bills. We have already passed 12 out of 13. The one we have not passed, we introduced the Washington, DC continuing resolution today, and it was objected to by one of your Members, and only because of the delicate scurrying around and our high regard on both sides of the aisle did we go back and reopen that we could do a CR for Washington, DC. I am just saying if you want to reopen the government, fine. Vote.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, let me yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. KINGSTON. If I could have 10 seconds, I want to say one thing, just to nitpick. The President was on a golfing junket over New Year's at Hilton Head. He was not negotiating.

Mr. KINGSTON. But where is his budget?

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to follow up on the discussion of the gentleman from New Jersey and the gentleman from Arizona. I think it is relevant. Mr. Speaker, one of the things that the Democrats are fond of saying, and, Mr. Lowey, I hear it said all the time, is that we are behind on the appropriation process. I would say that is accurate, but I would also say it is a lot more difficult when we are trying to reduce and consolidate government than when we are spending or renewing ``as is'' with a 10-percent increase. But let us say the Committee on Appropriations is very much guilty as charged. Why are you not as equally outraged then that the President of the United States is not guilty of not submitting a balanced budget when on June 4, 1992, he said, ``I will have a budget balanced in 4 years''? And we had all kinds of speeches where he said: I am going to support a balanced budget, I am or not. But he has not. One thing about these freshmen who get kicked so much is that they came here with a contract, albeit not everyone may have liked it on the other side of the aisle. But they said what they were going to do and they did it. They made it clear they were going to balance the budget. When did we first pass it? October? Where is the President? Where is his budget.

Mr. KINGSTON. Has that been CBO scored?

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. One of the things we have to remember as we hear, and the gentleman is a freshman, and I understand, I was listening to some of my Democrat colleagues calling your group a bunch of extremists and so forth. You know, what is interesting is the freshman class has voted on a balanced budget, and that budget has passed both Houses, and it passed. With the majority of votes in both Houses, and yet the President was the one who vetoed that. Now, the Democrats who are calling you guys extremists have not submitted a budget or have not voted on a budget. In fact, the President's budget did not get one single vote, Democrat or Republican, including our colleagues who we were entertained by earlier tonight. They have not submitted a balanced budget. They have not voted on a balanced budget. I think what is so important is, you know, all of this apportioning the blame seems to be going on in a real fervency. It takes our eye off what is important. A balanced budget is what is important. It will lower interest rates. It will create jobs. It will bring down the cost of home mortgages, the cost of automobile payments, student loans and so forth. Even more importantly than that, it will save our country from economic disaster. You cannot live in a country that has a $4.9 trillion debt and rising. And that debt was brought about by Republicans Democrats. We all know that. Anybody who starts blaming that on one President or one party or the other is fooling themselves. It is a bipartisan part.

Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman will yield further, I have a lot of Federal employees in my district. I am concerned about them. That is why I supported the Interior bill when it passed. That is why I supported today the veto override on the Commerce, State, Justice bill, which would have allowed the Federal prison employees to be paid, and what I do not quite understand is why our friends who want the Government reopened voted against these bills.

Mr. KINGSTON. I think what is so important here is let us not go around saying that the Newt Gingrich freshmen Republicans have closed down the Government when you know, and the learned distinguished gentlewoman from New York knows, that is not the case. The fact is that when you voted against that bill, you helped close down the Government, just a wee bit. Now, maybe, as an author of the bill, I may be accused of saying well, his bill reached too far, but there is plenty of, in the spirit of reopening the Government and in the spirit of balancing the budget, I would say there is plenty of room for both parties to come to the table, but do not sit over there and vote against the bills and have a President who vetoes the bill and then vote to support his veto and tell us we are closing down the Government. You know, it is too important to the Federal employees, to the National Park employees, to the prison guard employees in my district, for them to be hearing the games. This is their job. This is real people, real mortgages, real grocery bills, real problems, real jobs, and let us not say that, oh, well, I am going to vote against this bill but it is the Republicans that just did this.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, I would say to my friend and fellow committee member, we have all worked very hard on this committee to try to get the District of Columbia back to work and get the appropriations bill passed and so forth. Unfortunately, it is one of the bills that is getting caught in this massive debate over the size and scope of Government over the next 7 years. I think, as the gentleman knows well and certainly the ranking Committee on Appropriations member knows well, that the chairman has worked very hard on that process and will continue to do so. What we are trying to do now is at the request of the District of Columbia folks to let them continue to work.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, regular order.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, regular order.

Mr. KINGSTON. I will withdraw, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, I respectfully disagree with the gentleman from Florida. I think certainly the President purposely led the Members of Congress to believe, and remember I believe there were 68 Democrats who voted with the Republicans to reopen the Government in November under the clear understanding that the President would offer a balanced budget within that 3-week period. I thought, as a naive, fairly new comer here that we would have this thing wound up by December 15 and, if not, operate under continuing resolutions. But let me emphasize, even now, if the President, and I will not call him the porcelain President, although that has been suggested, but if he would make one sign of good faith negotiation, just offer the coalition budget or coalition modified or anything that is 7-years, Congressional Budget Office, then we reopen the government tomorrow. Let me reemphasize, I am not one who belongs to the caucus within the Congress of saying ``Do not reopen until it is finally done,'' because I am very concerned about these folks. I see a lot of gray area in here. But what I do not see any gray area in is in good faith bargaining.

Mr. KINGSTON. I want to ask my colleagues this question, and I want them to think about it in the context of the debate in the last couple of weeks. Is the issue the Government shutdown or is the issue balancing the budget? It would appear to me, as I have listened to the debate over the last couple of weeks, that the issue is the shutdown. We are concentrating so much on it, I am wondering if, for some Members, it is not a red herring. Because if it is not the issue, and the issue really is a balanced budget, then should your Members not join our Members in being absolutely outraged that the President, during that 3-week grace period, did not offer a balanced budget scored by the Congressional Budget Office? And, as my colleagues pointed out, it seems all three of you support the coalition budget, or you are close to it. Why not put that on the table? The second he does that, the Government is reopened.

Mr. KINGSTON. I asked that question because I just want you to really think about this. Should we not all, as a body, be outraged that the President, during that 3-week grace period, under the agreed handshake of, yes, I will put a 7-year balanced budget on the table by December 15, should we not all be outraged that he did not; rather than outraged at Newt Gingrich because the Government is closed down, when, in fact, the President of the United States has as much to do with it, if not more?

Mr. KINGSTON. Well, the gentleman from New Jersey is about to burst in thought here, so I want to yield to him for a question.

Mr. KINGSTON. Are you saying then the only thing we are arguing is the coalition budget versus the Republican budget? If we can establish that, I bet we could wind this thing up.

Mr. KINGSTON. Let me answer the question. If you have 30 days, and I am not one who says no CR. I am very concerned about these out-of-work employees. But my concern is that if we gave you 30 days, would you and your colleagues here tonight have a 7-year balanced budget plan that, regardless of what your leadership says or does, that you, the three of you, to put you on the spot, would say here is our plan, we are going to end up, because I think what it takes at this point is it is going to take rank and file assertiveness to come forward and say ``I am tired of waiting on the President, I am tired of waiting for our folks.''