[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 115 (Tuesday, August 16, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 16, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                             THE CRIME BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Duncan] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, very soon, the House will pass the crime 
bill, and the liberal national media will proclaim it to be a great 
victory for President Clinton.
  But will it be? Really?
  The President has a 79-seat majority in this House--a huge margin.
  Yet the crime bill, despite intense pressure and lobbying by the 
White House, and despite this 79-seat majority--lost by 15 votes.
  This should tell the people how bad this bill really is. And this in 
a year when everybody wants to vote for a crime bill.
  Once a bill is defeated in one Congress, it should not come up again 
until the next Congress is in place.
  Yet we will soon vote on this bill again, after some of the most 
intensive lobbying, arm-twisting pressure, and power politics this 
Nation has ever seen.
  This is what this bill is now about--politics--not crime.
  I spent 7\1/2\ years as a criminal court judge before coming to 
Congress.
  I tried primarily the felony criminal cases--the most serious cases.
  Yet I voted against this bill twice--Why?
  Well, let me tell you first, it had nothing to do with gun control.
  This is another myth or falsehood perpetrated by our liberal national 
media.
  They would have everyone believe that the only reason anyone would 
have voted against this bill was because of pressure from the NRA.
  This is totally, completely, 100 percent false.
  Most people voted against this bill because they want a real crime 
bill, a tough crime bill, not a Great Society social work bill.
  Most people voted against this bill because what started out as a $22 
billion bill ended up as a $33 billion monstrosity with everything but 
the kitchen sink in it.
  Most people voted against this bill because of 9 or 10 billion 
dollars' worth of social programs, including hundreds of millions for 
dance lessons, arts and crafts, basketball leagues, and graffiti 
removal.
  Now there is certainly nothing wrong with basketball leagues or 
graffiti removal. But the cities which need them should do them 
themselves.
  As bad of shape financially as most of our States and cities are in, 
very few are in as bad fiscal shape as is our Federal Government.
  Our Federal Government is presently over $4\1/2\ trillion in debt and 
still losing hundreds of millions more each day.
  We are already spending billions we do not have, yet our President 
and his supporters want us to pass a health bill that will be the most 
expensive bill ever passed in the history of this country.
  Most people voted against this so-called crime bill because the 
conference actually weakened provisions against our most serious drug 
dealers and against released sex offenders.
  Most people voted against this bill because the President's own FBI 
Director said it would do more harm than good--at least he was against 
it until the White House got him muzzled.
  Most people voted against this bill because most of the money goes to 
just a few of our Nation's largest cities. This is supposed to be 
because these are the areas of highest crime and highest unemployment.
  But the bill very much shortchanges and is very unfair to our smaller 
cities and especially to our small towns and rural areas.
  And many people voted against this bill because they want our crime 
dollars spent on the streets, fighting real crime. They know we will do 
more to fight crime by spending our crime-fighting dollars on local 
police and deputies, instead of on Federal bureaucrats and social 
workers.
  They know, too, that most people who have really analyzed this bill 
say it will allow for the hiring of only a small fraction of the 
100,000 officers its supporters claim.
  People all over this Nation are asking why should we send 33 billion 
of our hard-earned dollars to Washington, DC, where so much of it is 
going to be lopped off, first by the Federal Government, then by the 
State governments, and then by our 15 largest cities.
  Everyone who has ever dealt with the crime problem knows that by far 
the biggest single factor is broken homes.
  The overwhelming majority of our serious crimes are committed by 
young men who come from father-absent households.
  Already government is taking half of the average person's income in 
the form of taxes, counting taxes of all types, Federal, State and 
local.
  Most marriages break up due to disagreements over finances--battles 
over money.
  In 1948, the credit for children on tax returns was $600 each. 
According to the Heritage Foundation, if that had been indexed for 
inflation, it would be approximately $8,000 today.
  What does this have to do with crime--quite simply, it is this: In 
1940's and 1950's the Federal Government was really almost encouraging 
families through its tax policies.
  Today, our government is taking so much from our families that it is 
helping cause them to break down, and thus our crime problem grows 
worse.
  Now, we are going to take $33 billion more from our people to 
perpetrate a fraud, a cruel hoax--that it is being done to fight crime.
  This crime bill will not even put a small dent in our crime problem. 
It will be passed solely because of politics in a desperate attempt to 
try to make people who really are not tough on crime look like they 
are.

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