[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 118 (Friday, August 19, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                     PREMISE OF CRIME BILL IS WRONG

  (Mr. BALLENGER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BALLENGER. Mr. Speaker, the White House and the Democratic 
leadership are desperately trying to find little nicks and cuts that 
they can take out of their crime bill to win enough votes for a razor-
thin passage.
  Out of a $33 billion bill that spends more on social programs than it 
does on prisons, they want to shave off a whopping $1 or $2 billion. 
Most likely, they will all run home afterward and brag to their 
constituents how they cut Federal spending.
  Setting aside the fact that no bill that spends more than $30 billion 
ought to make it into law if this the only way it can be passed, the 
fact of the matter is that the whole premise of the crime bill is 
simply wrong.
  Thirty years of failed social experimentation ought to have taught us 
by now that it is simply wrong to focus on babying criminals with self-
esteem programs than on putting them in jail when they break the law. 
Forget ideology. It just does not work.
  In the 1960's we started blaming society instead of individuals and 
began putting handcuffs on our cops instead of on our criminals.
  Does anybody think that crime has gone down since then?

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