[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 67 (Tuesday, May 14, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H4904-H4905]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    SACRED COW DISEASE ALIVE AND WELL IN DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I am here to talk a bit about what we 
are getting ready to do today. We are getting ready to go into the 
Defense Department authorization and I want to know, where are the 
budget hawks? Where are all these people who have been talking about 
the deficit? Because when we look at where we are, it is really very, 
very troubling.
  Let me show my colleagues some charts. Everybody has their charts and 
I did not come unprepared. If we look at this and we look at the United 
States, which is the blue line, that is where we are spending. If we 
look at the red line, that is where Russia is spending. As we can see, 
when the cold war ended, their spending melted down. Not us. We keep 
right on spending. Even though we talk about the deficit, we do not do 
anything when it comes to the defense bill.

[[Page H4905]]

  Then we look at threat potentials, at the United States and what we 
are spending on defense, here is what Russia spends, here is what China 
spends, and here is what a whole range of other countries spend: Iran, 
Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Cuba. Either we are not spending very well or 
something is really wrong. We are spending an awful lot of money on 
stuff that there is some question about.
  What do I think the real problem is? In Great Britain they are 
talking about mad cow disease. This Congress has sacred cow disease. 
They see the Defense Department as the biggest sacred cow around here, 
and they will not allow anybody to touch their sacred cow. So, 
everybody, watch. This is our wonderful Republican colleagues pulling 
the sacred cow back in.
  The bill we are taking up today will not allow any cuts at all, even 
though it is 5 percent above what the administration asked for. Any 
number of us requested the ability to at least offer cuts to bring it 
down to what the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs said was enough, what the 
Commander in Chief said was enough, but, no, we are not even being 
allowed to debate that here. We are totally gagged.
  Do the Members know what we are going to debate here today? Today 
this body is going to become the moral police for the military. The 
people who represent us in the military, we do not want them to have 
the rights other Americans have, that they defend. Other Americans will 
get the Constitution defending their rights. People in the military get 
the Congress. Ask the average American, ``Who do you want defending 
your rights, the Constitution or the Congress?'' I think most of them 
will go with the Constitution. The Constitution looks a whole lot 
better today.
  But that sacred cow, I cannot even touch it today. I had an amendment 
to try to bring down the numbers. Any number of Members had amendments 
to bring down the numbers. I have been on the Committee on Armed 
Services for 24 years, and they are not going to allow us to touch the 
sacred cow. So sacred cow disease is alive and well.
  What are we doing today? We are charging it all to our kids. That is 
basically what we are doing. Anybody who votes for this bill today and 
tells us that they are a deficit hawk, that they really want to bring 
the deficit down, is absolutely wrong. What they are really saying is 
they will do everything they can to spend money on weapons systems.
  I guess that to me is the saddest part of all, because it is even 
coming out in the military. I just saw their new poster, their new 
poster that has nothing on it but fancy dandy toys, new toys for the 
boys from the Congress. These are all cold war weapons. They do not 
really fit any of the kind of missions that we are on today. But are we 
not happy to have them?

  I am so old, I remember that when we had Armed Forces Day, we 
celebrated the men and women who were in the Armed Forces. That is who 
we celebrated. None of these weapons are worth anything if we are not 
paying attention to the men and women in the Armed Forces and their 
families.
  So I find this a very sad day as we begin the debate on my last 
defense bill, because I am leaving. But in fact we have been gagged, we 
cannot mention one cut. We are going to spend hours here debating 
whether women should have the same reproductive rights as American 
women. We are going to have all sorts of stuff about HIV, sexual 
preference, what kind of magazines they can read, where they can read 
them, when they can read them, what they can do about them and on and 
on and on. We are encouraging a culture all driven by the industrial 
complex. This is sad, and I hope America wakes up.

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