[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 139 (Wednesday, October 8, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H8697-H8698]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            TROOPS IN BOSNIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Cooksey). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Duncan] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to speak briefly about three 
very important, but unrelated, topics.

[[Page H8698]]

  First, it has now been more than 1 year since the President promised 
he would have our troops out of Bosnia. There is no vital U.S. interest 
there. There is no threat to our national security there. We should not 
send young American men and women to overseas battlefields unless there 
is a definite threat to our national security or a vital U.S. interest. 
The American people do not want us there.
  I remember reading 3 or 4 years ago on the front page of the 
Washington Post that we had our troops in Haiti picking up garbage and 
settling domestic disputes. Now we have our military doing social work 
in Bosnia. U.S. soldiers should not be turned into international social 
workers.
  We have spent many billions in Rwanda, Somalia, Haiti, and now 
Bosnia, trying to settle disputes that we cannot solve unless we 
continue pouring billions and billions and billions of dollars into 
those countries. These are billions that some day we will very much 
wish that we had back to help our own people.


                Increase in Funding for IRS is Unfounded

  Mr. DUNCAN. Second, Mr. Speaker, a few days ago on the floor, I 
criticized on this floor as strongly as I could the Treasury-Postal 
appropriations bill for giving the Internal Revenue Service a $538 
million increase in funding. What I did not know then and could hardly 
believe when I found it out later was that in conference $120 million 
more was added.
  Many of us voted against this, but the Congress passed a $650 million 
increase for the IRS just at the conclusion of hearings on the IRS 
showing horrible abuse of the American people by that agency.
  The cover of this week's Newsweek Magazine really says it all: 
``Inside the IRS: Lawless, Abusive, and Out of Control.'' Those are not 
my words, Mr. Speaker, those are the words of Newsweek magazine. 
Newsweek says the IRS is lawless, abusive, and out of control.
  Mr. Speaker, the people want us to do away with the IRS, or at least 
drastically simplify the Tax Code. They especially do not want us 
giving the IRS huge increases in funding. If this is done next year, 
there is at least a small but fast-growing group of us that will 
attempt as hard as we can to defeat any increase in funding for the 
IRS.


                   Sports Salaries Have Gone Berserk

  Mr. DUNCAN. Third and last, Mr. Speaker, is something that makes 
almost everyone in this country feel underpaid, and that is the scandal 
of ridiculously lavish sports salaries. The sports world quite simply 
has gone berserk.
  A 21-year-old basketball player that very few people have even heard 
of signed a contract a few days ago for $123 million over the next 6 
years. A couple of years ago my two sons and I were driving along and 
we heard that a baseball pitcher signed for $18 million for 3 years.
  I asked my sons, ``Do you know how much $6 million a year is?'' The 
average person in my district makes between $21,000 and $22,000 a year. 
If a person averaged $25,000 a year for 40 years he would make $1 
million. If a person is way above average and making $50,000 a year he 
would make $2 million over a 40-year career. A person would have to 
average $150,000 a year for 40 years to make the $6 million this 
pitcher now makes pitching a baseball one day out of every four. This 
is totally out of whack, Mr. Speaker.
  An earlier speaker tonight discussed what he called a matter of 
fairness. Americans pride themselves on being fair. This is not fair at 
all, to pay even mediocre athletes several million dollars a year. No 
one can really earn or deserve some of these salaries, yet we are all 
helping pay these salaries through higher prices for everything.
  I have always fought against higher taxes, but we really should 
greatly increase the taxes on all of these athletes, movie stars and 
CEO's who make over $1 million a year, and lower taxes on middle-income 
people, even if only as a simple matter of fairness.
  We also should begin a boycott of all of these major league sports 
teams who are paying these ridiculous salaries, and especially a 
boycott of all products with their nicknames on them because they take 
in so much money in this way.
  I know we will not do this, Mr. Speaker, but if these salaries 
continue to escalate in such a crazy manner, the Congress should at 
least take action on the tax front. Already, mainly thanks to big 
government, the gap between the rich and the poor is growing rapidly. 
We need to recognize this problem and do everything we can to make sure 
that America once again becomes the fair Nation that it was in the 
past.

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