Cass Ballenger: “once again, the Clinton administration has stolen yet another Republican idea and called it their own. After originally…”

“once again, the Clinton administration has stolen yet another Republican idea and called it their own. After originally opposing legislation that would let hardworking Americans spend more time with their families, the President has chosen to co-opt this popular idea. This is a desperate action by a desperate man in a political year. When a Republican bill containing comp time, the Working Families Flexibility Act, was first mentioned as the minimum-wage legislative vehicle, the President's Chief of Staff, Leon Panetta, called it a poison pill and President Clinton waved his veto pen at it. But now after the Republicans have built support for this legislation, the President ran down to Nashville this past weekend to announce his own version of a comp time bill. The President does not show leadership by showboating, or stealing ideas from Republicans. If the President were truly committed to this issue, he would have pledged his support for the Working Families Flexibility Act, and he would work with Congress, instead of trying to upstage it. I ask the President to stop playing election-year politics and support H.R. 2391, the Working Families Flexibility Act, and I ask my colleagues to do the same.”