[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 42 (Tuesday, March 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H2731]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


      SAVE THE SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM; REJECT CAPITAL GAINS TAX CUT

  (Mr. BROWN of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I visited three elementary 
schools in my district, Hamilton and Homewood in Lorain, OH, and 
Franklin Elementary in Elyria. I talked with students, parents, 
cafeteria workers, teachers, and administrators about school lunches. 
The school lunch program, they told me, begun in 1946 by Harry Truman, 
is a Government program that works. They simply said ``Don't mess with 
it.''
  Almost one in three children in the Lorain and Elyria public school 
systems, middle American cities, certainly qualify for some type of 
assistance in school lunches. That is good, sound, fundamental policy. 
It helps the kids, for sure. For some of them it is the most nutrition 
they will get in a day. Just ask some of the physicians and nurses in 
Lorain County whether they think the school lunch program is a good 
investment.
  I am a budget deficit hawk, but cutting school lunches for working-
class and poor kids, Mr. Speaker, simply goes too far. Republican 
extremists last week, though, increased military spending by $3.2 
billion, and Republican extremists announced that they will pass a 
capital gains tax break for the wealthiest 1 percent of our society. 
Mr. Speaker, this is extremism. It should be rejected.

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