[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 85 (Tuesday, June 11, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H6121-H6122]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          IT IS TIME TO FACE OUR REAL PROBLEMS IN THIS COUNTRY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Mica] is recognized during 
morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, I picked up this morning's 
newspaper with dismay and read about the President of the United States 
traveling across the country. I guess he was in Las Vegas yesterday 
looking for answers to some of the problems facing our Nation. In 
particular he said he is obsessed with the juvenile crime problems. So 
he is wandering around the country trying to find out what has caused 
juvenile crime.

[[Page H6122]]

  I submit, Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, he does not really have to 
look too far. All he has to do is look at his policies and see what has 
generated crime particularly with our juveniles in this country. I 
submit, Mr. Speaker, that if we look at the policy of the past 40 
years--the policy of the other side of the aisle, we will see what they 
have sown we are now reaping with our children.
  I submit that people who laughed at Dan Quayle when he talked about 
family values are now having a sober moment, and all we need do my 
colleagues, is look at what we have legislated in this country to see 
what our children are doing. I submit, Mr. Speaker, that the President 
of the United States can offer curfews, he can offer uniforms, he can 
offer to regulate cigarettes, he can offer to put v-chips in 
televisions, and those are not the answers of what is wrong or what 
will cure the problems with our young people.
  I say to my colleagues that what this Congress has done, creating a 
system of dependency, creating a system of welfare, creating a system 
where a child has not seen a parent work, where we have lost the work 
ethic, where the answer is that government should come up with another 
program, another credit, another directive from Washington; that is 
what the answers have been, and this is what we receive.
  And then we look at the problems. The President is meeting with local 
law enforcement agencies' officers and agencies, and I have met with 
them, and they tell us that 70 percent of the crime in this country is 
related to drugs. We spent, during the Reagan and the Bush 
administration, years getting drug use to go down, telling students 
just say ``no,'' and what did this President do? First he fired just 
about everyone in the drug czar's office. What was his next step? He 
hired a chief health officer of the country, who turned into a farce, 
Jocelyn Elders, and what did she say? She said, ``Just say `maybe'.'' 
Our kids are not dumb; they saw what this meant: Try it. And they are 
trying it, and we are reaping the harvest of this administration.
  And then he cut interdiction, interdiction, 70 percent of the drugs 
coming through Mexico, and rewarded Mexico. This is the policy that we 
have seen. We know we can legislate, and unless we pass legislation 
that encourages families to care for their own, unless we return to 
Judeo-Christian values, until we have a tax policy that does not take 
away opportunities for our young people to work with minimum wage, 
unless we say that, ``Children, yes, you have to work and you will 
receive. We must stop asking what Washington can do for you. It's what 
you can do for yourself.''
  Until we get back to some work ethic in this country, until we stop 
forcing people to live in public housing--I saw on television where a 
little girl choked to death on a roach in public housing and last night 
watched on TV the public housing that we would not put our dog in, and 
that is the alternative that is offered by the other side, these old 
ideas, and that is what we are seeing in our public housing facilities.
  So the problem is here in Congress. We have created the problem. And 
we will have a choice, the American people will have a choice. Do we 
continue down the path of the last 40 years, do we continue with 
ignoring the drug policy? The President mentioned children in one 
speech 46 times, but he rarely mentions the drug problem in this 
country: heroin on the increase, methamphetamines, designer drugs, 
cocaine, marijuana that is frying the brains of our young people, and 
he will not mention it, and the media will not mention it.
  Someone has got to mention it because this is destroying this 
generation, and I have had it with this administration, I have had it 
with this President, and I have had it with the solutions of the other 
side of this aisle, and it is time we got serious and answered the real 
problems facing our children and our country.

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