[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 77 (Wednesday, May 10, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H4789-H4790]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        COMMENDING UNSUNG HEROES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Norwood). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from California [Mr. Hunter] will be recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, let me just briefly answer my friends who 
just spoke about the defense budget numbers. From my calculations the 
President's defense budget cuts $127 billion below the Bush baseline. 
In practical terms, that means that under this President, we have 
reduced the Army from 18 divisions to 12 divisions. We have reduced our 
air wing equivalents from about 24 to 13. We have reduced the Navy from 
about 540 ships to about 340, almost a 40 percent cut. We are going 
down radically.
  However, Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk about something else 
tonight, because the gentleman mentioned defense, and this happens to 
be the anniversary, May 10, 1972, of our colleague, the gentleman from 
California, Duke Cunningham, being shot down in the skies over Vietnam, 
having shot down five MiG aircraft, and I understand at least three of 
them were in the air, and being nominated for the Congressional Medal 
of Honor for flying into a pack of MiG aircraft that were on his 
wingman's tail, and probably would have killed his wingman, had Duke 
not flown his aircraft into that enemy air formation.
  Duke, we commend you.
  While we are at it, I thought I might talk about a few other unsung 
heroes. Those are people who have been taking a lot of hits lately from 
the President. They are called talk show hosts. We have a few of them 
in San Diego. One of them, Roger Hedgecock, is a leader of talk radio 
in KSDO in San Diego. The President apparently does not like him. He 
criticizes the President a lot. He led a group of citizens back here a 
few weeks ago, when we had the balanced budget vote in the House of 
Representatives, and Roger Hedgecock staged his talk show, his talk 
radio show, from the Halls of the U.S. Capitol. He brought back in 
excess of 100 U.S. citizens, people from all walks of life, who walked 
door to door, not professional lobbyists, but people who went door to 
door and talked to their Congressmen and other Congressmen about voting 
for, of all things, a balanced budget.
  We have another talk show host, Peter Weisbach, in San Diego, KOGO 
radio, who thought that perhaps the Mexican bailout, the $20 billion of 
taxpayers' money that we sent to Mexico, was not a good idea; 
obviously, somebody else who disagreed with the President's policies. 
The President apparently does not like that.
  Mike Reagan is another talk show host who appears on KOGO, and many 
times I have been on Mike's show talking about American foreign policy. 
He has educated our listeners in areas in which most Americans do not 
pay a great deal of attention. I can remember listening to Stacy Taylor 
of KFMB, my neighbor up in Alpine, CA. Stacy is a talk show host that 
you might classify as liberal or moderate, except for his strong belief 
in the second amendment. I do not know exactly how you would classify 
him, but I think that the way he conducts his show is provocative. I 
think it is informative. He takes me on a lot, takes on a lot of the 
political figures, takes on the President now and then, and that is not 
bad.
  Lastly, we have Hudson and Bauer of KFMB in San Diego. They were 
invited by President Clinton when he thought maybe he could get talk 
radio on his side to come back and have their talk show located on the 
White House grounds.
  [[Page H4790]] I can remember walking there through the talk radio, 
through all the talk show hosts who were located on the White House 
grounds, at President Clinton's invitation, giving their commentary on 
American politics, and this President's performance. When the President 
thought that he could bring these people to his side and swing opinion 
in his direction, he lobbied the talk show hosts. He thought they were 
great people. However, they listened to people, and most Americans are 
fairly conservative. Apparently, he has not appreciated the heat that 
he has taken from these people.
  In a couple of weeks, Mr. Speaker, we are going to celebrate and 
commemorate the Americans who lost their lives in battles in this 
country and outside of this country, from Bunker Hill to Belleau Wood 
to Inchon in Korea, to Khe Sanh, to the Persian Gulf, and those 
Americans who lost their lives fought, of course, for that broad array 
of freedoms that we generally describe as liberty in this great land. 
One of those greatest freedoms is the right to criticize your elected 
officials.
  Therefore, Mr. President, when you listen to talk show hosts and you 
do not like to the fact that they are criticizing you or taking you on, 
do not worry. Do not complain. It is the sound of freedom.


                          ____________________