[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 65 (Friday, May 16, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2866-H2867]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             THE GOVERNMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hastings of Washington). Under a 
previous order of the House, the gentleman from West Virginia [Mr. 
Wise] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WISE. Mr. Speaker, I was struck by an earlier speaker this 
afternoon who talked about his many concerns about government. I 
understand that government is not perfect. Government often needs 
correction. But I think it is time that we also speak about what 
government does and why government exists and why we believe government 
is important.
  Yesterday this House passed an emergency supplemental bill to assist 
flood victims not only in my State of West Virginia but across the 
Midwest and in several other areas. I can testify personally, because I 
was there when the flood waters were still going down, about the 
hundreds of sets of eyes that I looked into, that the one thing they 
were hanging on was the fact that the Federal Emergency Management 
Agency was there telling them they were going to help them dig out. 
Right before FEMA got there, the West Virginia National Guard was 
there. That was government.
  I also know that last night, as I drove home, I was reassured to see 
a police car driving around our block just keeping the calm in our 
area. Of course right in front of this Capitol, President Clinton 
addressed a memorial service for fallen law enforcement officers. Those 
officers fell in the name of government and protecting citizens.
  I know that my children and I will sleep secure tonight knowing that 
we will not be invaded and that even though we live in the richest, in 
many ways most sought after nation in the world, somebody is on guard 
protecting us. That is called the military. Yes, we do pay a higher 
proportion of our budget for military defense than almost any other 
nation in the world, but I think most of us think that that is a good 
investment.
  I know that my children and I hope they will have the opportunity to 
go on to higher education just like millions of others before them. And 
we know that the Government is there providing those opportunities 
whether through Pell grants for lower income students or through 
guaranteed student loans, and indeed, this Congress will debate other 
means of assisting people to go to college. That is government. I also 
know that the GI bill, which I consider the single greatest economic 
development device that the free world has known, which came about 
following World War II and by which millions of Americans returning 
home from World War II were able to greatly improve their lives by 
going to college, they did that through something called government.
  I know that my family and I are trying to go see Aunt Connie in a 
distant State. We will, hopefully, fly to see her over a long weekend. 
We will depend and fly secure knowing that the air traffic controllers 
are guiding our planes through the air. Yes, they are government.
  I know that when I drive home this evening that I will drive on roads 
and, quite frankly, no business would build some of the roads between 
some of the towns in our country. It is just not economically 
justifiable on today's bottom line, but those roads are built because 
they are designed to create economic opportunities in the future. Who 
built those roads? The taxpayer built the roads but the roads were 
built, the taxpayer built them through something called government.
  I understand that nobody likes taxes and I do not either. But when 
tax day came did anyone point out that the United States of America has 
the lowest tax burden in the world in the individual tax burden 
compared to any major industrial democracy. Yes, the tax burden is too 
high still on low- and middle-income persons but that can be adjusted. 
But I think it is important to note the value of the services that we 
receive. I hear concerns about Medicare and Social Security, Social 
Security is government. It is the single greatest antipoverty program 
in the world. It dropped the level of senior citizens in poverty by 
one-half.
  Medicare, which is health care for the senior citizen, I might point 
out, is also insurance for the middle income, middle-age person as well 
or the younger person because Medicare means that the low-income or 
middle-income person trying to make a living with a family does not 
always have to be worrying about supporting their family. Medicare and 
Social Security are taking care of those aged loved ones for that. That 
is government.
  So it is fair for us to argue about the role of government, but I 
think we ought to be talking in respect about what government can and 
does do. It does not always work perfectly. It sometimes fails. But it 
also has many, many purposes and that it provides. Government, finally, 
is an expression of the people about what they want to be done as a 
group that they are not able to do individually.
  Finally, the final testament to government is the fact that the 
gentleman

[[Page H2867]]

who spoke several speakers before me, who has such diametrically 
opposite views from mine, we were able to stand in this well exchanging 
these views. Neither one may be right and neither one may be completely 
wrong, but we have the freedom to do so and have those views expressed. 
That is government as well.

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