[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 138 (Wednesday, September 28, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: September 28, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
{time} 1720
CALLING FOR THE RESIGNATION OF SURGEON GENERAL JOYCELYN ELDERS
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Scott). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of February 11, 1994, and June 10, 1994, the gentleman from
Illinois [Mr. Crane] is recognized for 30 minutes as the designee of
the minority leader.
Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to inform colleagues about the
introduction of a bill that I submitted last Friday, H. Res. 545. H.
Res. 545 was the result of a frustrating experience that a number of us
had in communicating with the White House on our conviction that our
Surgeon General should be removed from office. The fact of the matter
is we wrote 2 separate letters to the President urging him to call for
her resignation and he did not agree. So we have introduced this
legislation with 25 cosponsors already that calls upon the President to
please seek to remove her from the bully pulpit where she sets so
horrifying an example to the Nation.
There is a group called the Family Research Council. The Family
Research Council has a member, Kay James, that responds to a number of
the Elders' quotes that I would like to read.
Joycelyn Elders says:
``We have drivers' ed for our kids. We've taught them what to do in
the front seat of the car but not what to do in the back seat.''
Kay James responds:
``Why assume they are going to be in the back seat? Assuming that
kids are going to be sexually active is comparable to giving them a
license. But choosing to be sexually active is more critical than the
decision to drive a car. Why don't we teach them what not to do in the
back seat? Elders is known for saying ``you can't be what you can't
see.'' I agree with that, and unfortunately, she is not modeling
anything that would give kids encouragement for abstinence.''
Next quote from our Surgeon General:
``You've been preaching abstinence for a hundred years. I've still
got a problem. I've still got thousands of teenagers having babies
every year.''
Kay James' response:
``The truth is that we have not been teaching abstinence to kids.
Public schools have never implemented a comprehensive abstinence
education curriculum in their family life programs. Title X funding is
$170 million compared with Title XX, abstinence education funding, at
approximately $1 million. No reputable study shows that contraceptive
based programs have worked and many have shown otherwise. A Lou Harris
poll shows that teens who have had a sex education course that
discusses contraceptives have a 50-percent higher sexual activity rate
than those who have not. Abstinence based programs are the only ones
with a consistent track record of success, often dramatic success.''
Again our Surgeon General:
``Look who's fighting the pro-life movement. A celibate, male-
dominated church, a male-dominated legislature, and a male-dominated
medical profession.''
Kay James' response:
``Wrong. Actually the 2 most prominent pro-life groups in the United
States, National Right to Life, and the American Life League, are
headed by women. Many minorities are pro-life. A 1989 Wirthlin Group
National Survey shows that women are far more pro-life than men. In
fact, the Black Americans for Life is one of the fastest growing pro-
life groups in the United States. Her ad hominem arguments don't really
address the issues.''
Again our Surgeon General. Elders calls her critics ``non-Christians
with slave-master mentalities.''
James responds:
``The slave imagery doesn't work on this one. Elders is trying to
appeal to the days of slavery, equating the abortion struggle with a
civil rights issue. Elders shouldn't denigrate the civil rights
movement with her reference to what she calls ``reproductive freedom.''
There are many of us who are growing weary of social engineers
hijacking the freedom train to accomplish their own agenda.''
Again, Joycelyn Elders:
``I would hope that we would provide prostitutes Norplant so that
they could use sex if they must to buy their drugs.''
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. CRANE. Yes.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. That is almost too much for me to digest.
Would the gentleman read that again? This is our Surgeon General saying
this.
Mr. CRANE. Our Surgeon General, a direct quote. It was Talk Line on
CNBC that they did on June 19, 1993. I will read it again:
``I would hope that we would provide prostitutes Norplant so that
they could use sex if they must to buy their drugs.''
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. If the gentleman would yield, I wish everybody
in America could hear your special order tonight, because the moral
foundation of any administration is extremely important to the moral
health of the country. It appears to me and to many of my colleagues,
yourself included, that there really is not much of a moral foundation
in this administration. They have brought in every kind of deviate they
can possibly think of into every agency of Government, and now they are
advocating these kinds of policies for the people of this country? It
makes no sense.
I would just submit when people start wondering why when the economy
is not really bad that a President's popularity is going right straight
down the tubes, it is because the people of this country understand
that there is a moral problem that is being created, not solved, by the
administration. This administration and the people that he is putting
in these key positions is killing the moral fiber of America instead of
helping make it better. I think it is a sad state of affairs when the
chief executive of this country would even put somebody like this in a
position of leadership.
Mr. CRANE. I appreciate the gentleman's remarks.
The fact of the matter is on some of the remarks that have been made
by our Surgeon General, the administration has attempted to position
itself in opposition, in theory, yet has taken no action. Yet Dr.
Elders herself remarked in an interview, ``I saw the President recently
and he congratulated me on what I've been doing.''
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield
further, that is the old ham-and-egg game that is played many times in
politics to make people think that the guy on the white horse in the
White House is really a good guy when he has got somebody else doing
the dirty work that he supports.
If the President really thought that Joycelyn Elders was on the wrong
track, it would be a matter of a snap of his fingers, he would replace
her. The fact of the matter is, she is doing his bidding by pushing his
social and moral agenda on this country. If he did not want her making
these kinds obnoxious statements, if he did not want her talking about
the youth of America like she does, he could get rid of her in a
heartbeat. The fact of the matter is, he is in league with her and he
does not want to do anything about it.
Mr. CRANE. I thank the gentleman for his comments.
I would be happen to yield to my colleague, the gentleman from
California.
Mr. DOOLITTLE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I think the comments that have been made are very
appropriate and I think it should not and they do not just focus on
Joycelyn Elders because, after all, she was put in place by the
President of the United States who has given her, it seems, based on
the quotes that were just read, an unqualified endorsement and
ratification of the extreme position she has taken.
Imagine, the very idea of teaching sex education to kindergartners in
the public schools, to passing out condoms, to basically making
comments that encourage promiscuous sexual activity, which apparently
in her mind is OK, as long as you have a condom. We are witnessing a
severe moral crisis in this country.
It is on my mind because of what recently happened to a good friend
of mine in Rocklin who was literally run down by a 19-year-old who was
mad about something. He was looking around for 3 days driving around,
according to newspapers. So this woman is walking, Rocklin is a great
place where people walk and ride their bikes. She is out walking in the
morning, 6:30 a.m., and he plows into the back of her going about 40
miles an hour. We have had numerous surgeries, it has only been about 4
weeks, I guess now, going on 5, so there are great injuries to be
repaired. Thankfully it did not kill her.
But I am struck by a comment that William Raspberry made recently in
the Washington Post, it was 3 or 4 weeks ago now, but I saved it. The
article referred to the consciencelessness of our young people, not all
our young people, but some of our young people, who apparently in the
most minor dispute would settle it with a gun or a knife. It is getting
to the point where the morals of this country have gone precipitiously
downhill, and I think it starts with moral leadership like we are
getting from the top, President and Mrs. Clinton on down through Dr.
Joycelyn Elders, the Surgeon General of the United States.
These comments about legalizing drugs. Every time you legalize
something like that, you increase the use. The most widely used legal
drug in the country, I guess, is alcohol, and we have a persistent
problem with alcoholism, not only amongst our young people but amongst
adults. If you want to see what would happen with drugs, look what goes
on with alcohol and just magnify it and multiply it because that is
exactly what you would have if you legalized marijuana or cocaine or
heroin. It would be a disaster.
{time} 1730
Then to have these statements about religion, which are just
outrageous that have been made. You know George Washington, our
country's first President said this Republic was founded upon and could
only be maintained upon two fundamental pillars or foundations. One was
religion and the other morality.
And when you have a republic that loses its religious base or that
loses its morality you are going to lose your freedom. That was
basically a paraphrase of the philosophy of the Founders.
I would just submit, Mr. Speaker, that we are in the process of
losing that freedom. We all lose our freedom when we are fearful to go
out on the streets, or to go out in our car because we think somebody
might harm us. And we are losing our freedom when we subject ourselves
to being preyed upon by people without conscience.
We had this debate I think on the crime bill, and to me I do not care
how many police you hire or how many prisons you build, these are only
interim solutions. They will never stem the flood unless we teach
children values in the home, and that means children have to be raised
with a mother and a father, ideally. And we as a country should seek to
be cutting our taxes, and cutting our regulations so that more mothers
and fathers can stay together and teach those values in the home.
Instead of that you have a President Clinton come in who appoints
somebody like Joycelyn Elders who preaches this gospel of free sex, and
antireligion, and you have high taxes levied upon the people, while out
of the other side of their mouths they are talking about reducing the
deficit and getting in touch with the people. In reality they are
deliberately hurting the people by putting a bigger burden of
government on their shoulders, which leads to more family breakups
which leads to more children being raised without that mother and
father in the home, which leads ultimately to the present problems that
we have. All of this 1960's generation, we have sown these seeds, and
we are reaping the whirlwind right now with higher rates of crime,
higher rates of illegitimacy, with the poor performance in the schools,
the record amounts of abuse and spousal abuse. This is the bountiest
harvest that the liberals have sown for us, and we ought to recognize
what the problem is.
It is not because of the Reagan revolution where we tried to cut back
on the excesses of government. It is because the liberals forgot that
values mattered and that if you do not have values in the home and
morals being taught, you do not have anything. And Joycelyn Elders'
comments are just a perfect representation of this relativist, this
moral relativism that has gotten us in such trouble.
Mr. CRANE. I could not agree with the gentleman more, and I agree
with his comments.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. If the gentleman will yield further, we had
down here one evening a list of all of the Presidential appointments,
like Joycelyn Elders, and the backgrounds on a number of them was
unbelievable as far as their views on immoral activities and things
that would lead this country in the wrong direction. I do not know
whether the gentleman brought that with him tonight. Does the gentleman
happen to have that?
Mr. CRANE. No; I do not have.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I hope that we will do another special order
before we adjourn sine die, and I will try to get that list so that we
can go through the backgrounds and the views of not just this but a
number of Clinton appointees so that the people of this country can see
that this is not an accident that this sort of thing is going on. I
mean, there is a design they have put together and in position
throughout all of this administration that is leading this country down
what I consider, and I think most Americans consider to be an immoral
road.
Mr. CRANE. I agree with the gentleman's assessment. The fact of the
matter is the Surgeon General commands a bully pulpit for accomplishing
real, positive things, and yet the example we have in Dr. Elders is the
exact contrary.
Let me quickly read Kay James' response to that quote earlier, and I
will repeat it one more time:
I would hope that we would provide prostitutes Norplant so
they could use sex if they must to buy their drugs.
And Kay James' response:
This is perhaps the most irresponsible statement that any
public health official has ever made. It shows a complete
lack of understanding of the drug crisis, the AIDS epidemic
and the growing menace of other sexually transmitted
diseases. Elders is identifying pregnancy as the ultimate
evil. What about the immoral and unhealthy behavior of
prostitution? What about the abuse of drugs? It seems that
Elders' only goal is to stop pregnancy, or more accurately,
births.
Rather than give all of the responses from Kay James, I would
heartily recommend to everyone again, because as I say, the Family
Research Council here in Washington, DC, can provide all of the
responses of Kay James, but let me give some more examples of Dr.
Elders' quotes.
We pay for pregnancy but we won't pay for contraception.
That doesn't make sense.
That was in the Raleigh news and Observer back in March of last year.
If Medicaid does not pay for abortions, does not pay for
family planning, but pays for prenatal care and delivery,
that's saying ``I'll pay for you to have another good,
healthy slave, but I won't pay for you to use your brain and
make choices for yourself.'' It's a way to keep people poor,
ignorant, and enslaved. If you're poor and ignorant you are a
slave.
American Medical News in January of last year.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to my colleague from California [Mr. Dornan].
Mr. DORNAN. I thank the gentleman for yielding. In racing over here
from my Rayburn office, when I saw your wonderful countenance appear on
the tube, I did not hear some of the opening remarks, so let me just,
because they are all worth repeating, let me just hit and miss some
things.
Did the gentleman get into the Record that sad story of Kevin Elders,
the Surgeon General's son, that he has been sentenced for 10 years on
cocaine?
Mr. CRANE. No, no, I did not touch about that.
Mr. DORNAN. What is interesting about this is the Surgeon General
knew that he had been arrested and was procuring, as any good mother
would, good, solid legal defense, working this through, during that
period when the world did not know about the arrest, but Kevin knew,
and the mother, the Surgeon General knew, she came out with her first
suggestion about legalizing drugs, hardly a statement devoid of a
vested interest. And that went on until the court case began that ended
up with guilty for Kevin Elders.
This morning on my friend--not--Phil Donahue's show, there was
America's prime radical lawyer, a man of great candor, William Kunsler.
He said that this was a political case, that the judicial system was
punishing Joycelyn Elders for her candor and openness and sending her
son to jail for 10 years. That type of Oliver Stonehead extreme
conspiracy fantasizing tears up America youth just as badly as it does
for the chief health officer of the United States to say:
You young people should have legalized drugs. You young
people should get condoms down to 9 years of age.
And then quoting her, she says:
And let me tell you about an 8-year-old in Arkansas that
was pregnant with twins.
By the way, I have never doubted her word or her frankness except that
story. I want to see an 8-year-old pregnant with twins. And I would
like to know what happened to that pregnancy, and if these 9-years-olds
should get condoms, and in the very adjacent sentence start discussing
an 8-year-old, then we are fair in saying she wants 8-years-olds to
have condoms. Among my nine grandchildren I have two 8-year-olds, and
when I look at them, look at their faces, they both happen to be girls,
I say, ``Is this woman bereft of her senses?''
Here is another thing I want to discuss. Did any of my three
colleagues discuss that the press went up to her after one of her more
outrageous statements, and I am going to put them all in the Record
either during your special order or I have another one that follows the
gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton], so we have time here to get this
on the record, that Clinton was about to leave for Normandy for all of
those photo ops, pushing veterans aside to see if he could get his poll
numbers up, which did not happen, they went down, and while he was out
of the country they went up to Joycelyn Elders and they said to her:
What about these last statements here, does the President
know you're saying these things? Is he approving of all of
this?
I have no reason to believe that Joycelyn Elders was not telling the
truth when she said the following, remember, talking about legalizing
drugs was not, not telling the truth, that was a hidden agenda because
her son was arrested for cocaine, not only usage but selling.
{time} 1740
And so that was deceitful and against openness, but nothing to do
with, you know, not creating a story out of fiction. She said to the
press, ``The President, came up to me the other day and said,
`Joycelyn,''' and they are friends all the way back to Arkansas where
she was chief health officer, and I do not know whether they have a
military title assigned to it, ``he said, `Joycelyn, I love it.''' I
have seen this in print. Both of my sons saw it visually. She said,
``Clinton said to me, `I love what you are doing, Joycelyn, Keep it up.
I am behind you.'''
Within days he had fired the drug czarina, the director of national
drug policy, Kristine Gebbie, excuse me, the director of the AIDS
program, he had fired Kristine Gebbie because the homosexual activists
wanted Kristine Gebbie fired for shooting off her mouth and making dumb
statements and mainly for all the wrong reasons, and they got her
fired.
Less than 1 percent of this country is homosexual in or out of
privacy, what the pejoratively call the closet, privacy is what it
really is, and she gets fired by the activists of less than 1 percent
of the country.
But the entire Nation of observant Jews, observant Catholics,
observant Protestants, people of faith and belief are saying this woman
is hurting our children, and he says, ``I love what you are doing. Keep
it up. I am behind you.'' She said ``You think I am not telling you the
truth? Ask him when he comes back from Normandy.''
Well, did the press ask him? No, or if they did, they did not report
it. It appears that the real problem here is not the Surgeon General
but the man and the co-President and the administration that appointed
her and tolerates these outrageous statements hurtful to the youth of
America.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Can I involve my self in this colloquy?
Mr. DORNAN. I want you involved.
Mr. CRANE. I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. This is what I was talking about just a few
minutes ago.
If you look through the appointments made by the President and this
administration, it is amazing the number of people that have the same
kind of liberal social agenda and immoral agenda, I call it, as
Joycelyn Elders, and it permeates the entire administration.
The problem is the American people are not aware of all of these
appointments. Joycelyn Elders stands out like a sore thumb because she
makes such outrageous statements on a regular basis.
She is not the only one. There must be 20 or 30 of these people in
very key positions who are advocating, at Personnel Management, OPM,
and they have got a person over there right now, and I cannot think of
the gentleman's name, that is advocating sensitivity training in all
Government agencies for people to deal with homosexuals.
Mr. DORNAN. Sensitivity training means homosexuality must be raised
to the level of family, of normal family, and Joycelyn Elders says,
which is a dangerous lie, not a lie, a dangerous, stupid misstatement
to the American people, that homosexual conduct is not only normal, it
is healthy, she says, healthy.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. In Indianapolis in some of the government
agencies over there, they are now mandating, and they have put up big
bulletin boards for the homosexual community so they can set up
meetings with one another. This is sanctioned by this Office of
Personnel Management, and it makes no sense. I mean, they are actually
advocating that with Government tax dollars, because that agency is in
favor of it. Now, that is the problem. It is permeating this entire
administration.
Mr. DORNAN. Absolutely. This must be like 1776; another patriot has
arrived on the floor from the great State of Missouri.
Mr. CRANE. I yield to the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Hancock].
Mr. HANCOCK. You know, you mentioned Joycelyn Elders holds gay sex
healthy; it is broader than that. She says it is wonderful.
Mr. DORNAN. That is right, I forgot.
Mr. HANCOCK. She says it is wonderful and healthy. She says that it
is wonderful and a normal and healthy part of our being. You know, she
called the Boy Scout ban on homosexual scouts and Scout leaders unfair.
She said school-based health clinics should address the needs of
homosexuals as well as heterosexual students. Well, nobody is going to
argue with that except the advocacy of it is where we draw the line.
I mean, certainly the people or schools, the students should be
educated on sex hygiene and this type of thing, but not advocating it
as she is advocating it, and there is a lot more to it than just saying
that it is, and when they say healthy, I agree with the gentleman from
California, this is one of the most dangerous activities that we can
engage in, the homosexuals.
Mr. DORNAN. In some urban areas, it surpasses gunshot deaths for
young males, AIDS infection.
Mr. HANCOCK. And they are not teaching the results of this type of
activity. All they are teaching is how to perform it, how to get
involved in it, and how to protect yourself, and there is only one
protection, and that is absolute, and that is abstinence. I mean, it is
just that simple.
So I fully support the fact that this individual should not be the
Surgeon General of the United States, and I just wonder what other
countries are looking at, how they think about all of this.
Mr. DORNAN. I do not know if other countries wear a Public Health
Service uniform, but Dr. Koop, and I agreed with him on most things, I
mean, he all by himself has saved hundreds of thousands of lives in
America because he reduced the smoking rate from the high 30's down to
the low 20's, and that is going to have a health effect. I disagree
with him on some of the things. I fought against my good colleague, the
gentleman from California [Mr. Waxman], to get his appointment through
under Ronald Reagan in 1981, and he turned 180 degrees on some issues
and ran up a white flag of surrender, but Koop was on a weekend show a
week ago Saturday, on ``American Interests,'' no, on Adam Smith's
economics show, and he was explaining the cost of unhealthy sex,
although he caved in to the condom-distribution solution, and he went
through the killer aspect of this.
So I called the Centers for Disease Control down in Atlanta and said,
``Give me the new statistics on AIDS deaths in this country,'' and if
my staff, which they are supposed to do, is watching me on the House
floor, they are going, ``Uh oh,'' because I asked them 4 days ago to
get the June 30 cutoff. I do not have it. I am reaching for it, and it
is not in my mind. So I will go with September 30, first, 217,000 dead
Americans. Remember Legionnaires' disease, it broke out here again with
one to two dead people; I think the total there never passed the 20
mark. Two hundred seventeen thousand dead.
Dr. Koop told me that figure in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, and 1987 was
low by 10, probably 20 percent, he said. Let us take 10. Ten percent of
217,000 means over 257,000 deaths, and 200,000 of those deaths are
attributed to homosexual conduct and/or drug-using homosexuals. They do
not know which way they got it.
You know, we are approaching World War II death totals of 312,000,
depending on your encyclopedia. In 4 or 5 years, more young males, not
in combat, except sexual combat, will have lost their lives than above
the sea, under the sea, in the jungles, the sand, and the forests of
Europe, all over the world, 312,000 Americans, and this is called
healthy by the Surgeon General to protect our health.
Then, as I started to say, I do not know what other countries do, but
Koop bragged about how he brought the uniform back, because it gave him
a uniqueness, particularly with that Lincolnesque beard, and I do not
know what ribbons he wore, but Joycelyn Elders has about three rows of
ribbons. There was a rumor out she was wearing a Purple Heart. That was
a little wild, and turned out that was not true. But most of those
ribbons, if not all of them, are ribbons awarded to the Public Health
Service. Servicemen listening know what a unit commendation is. You
wear it when you are in the unit, but when you leave the unit, you do
not take it with you. That is because you are in that unit that got a
Presidential commendation.
She wears all of these combat ribbons, and she is killing people, the
wrong way, with the wrong advice, so I just think that we have got to
look to who hired her and who protects her, not that she should resign
in disgrace.
And do we all know what the word is on the street, the conventional
wisdom? It is that she has something on the man who appointed her,
because she was head of the health departments in Arkansas when several
cases came up against her relatives, and I do not want to speak poorly
of the dead who have gone to heaven, particularly when they are part
Irish, but there were some cases that came up. One of them he was in
this 2-year short term as attorney general in his early thirties, 30 to
32, and then he become Governor, 32 years of age, another case came up,
and there are rumors in Arkansas that Joycelyn Elders played a key
role, which means she is not fireable. She is protected by her gender,
by hear ethnic heritage, and by these rumors.
So I guess we are going to have to live with her 2 more years, so
that is why I want to focus in on the person who appointed her.
____________________