[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 27 (Wednesday, March 5, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E389]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  REFLECTIONS ON HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 31--THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

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                               speech of

                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 4, 1997

  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, it's a day of biblical proportions--Congress 
debates the Ten Commandments and Charlton Heston prepares to present 
the staff he used as Moses to Mickey Mouse. The theater of the absurd 
becomes reality on the Hill and off.
  I walk through the valley of congressional hypocrisy and take 
spiritual inventory of the less than holy works of my colleagues on 
welfare. Without trying to upstage Moses, I offer the following 
principles for consideration:

       Treasure the children. Thou shalt not prioritize money 
     above them.
       Thous shall not take the status of legal immigrants in 
     vain.
       Thou shall not willfully push over 1 million children into 
     poverty.
       Thou shall not deny disability payments to over 260,000 of 
     the poorest children of our nation.
       Thou shall not bear false witness to over 800,000 elderly 
     legal immigrants by terminating Medicaid and SSI assistance.
       Thou shall not deceive our nation's governors, forced to 
     bear the burden of a disintegrated safety net and an 
     evaporated entitlement, with the false prophecies of bonus 
     payments and block grants.
       Thou shall not disgrace a nation in a time of widening gaps 
     of wealth under the guise of reform.

  If Members look to the Bible for justification of their actions, they 
would profit from the book of Job:

       Do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we 
     do not know? What insights do you have that we do not have? 
     The gray-haired and the aged are on our side, men even older 
     than your father. Why has your heart carried you away, and 
     why do your eyes flash, so that you vent your rage against 
     the meek, the humble, the poor of our nation? Job 15:8-13.

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