[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 62 (Wednesday, May 15, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H2500]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2200
              CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE TREATED WITH CONTEMPT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Sullivan). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, we have initiated the debate on the Temporary 
Assistance for Needy Families Act reauthorization. I want to pick up on 
a point that I made during the discussion of the rule, and that is that 
poor people are treated with great contempt in this Congress. During 
the discussions that preceded the preparation for the bill, there has 
been language that indicated that the poor are held in contempt. 
Children are treated with contempt. They make the mistake of assuming, 
speaking as if we are dealing with welfare mothers and women who are 
unworthy of being helped by the government. Actually most of the aid to 
families with dependent children is exactly what it says, it is aid to 
families with children. We are helping children, and to treat children 
with contempt is a great mistake in humanitarian terms, in national 
terms and even military terms.
  It happens at this point in history there has been a lot of 
highlighting of the fact that poor children in certain countries like 
Pakistan and Afghanistan and a few of the Islamic nations are being 
nurtured and brought into schools called madrassahs, and being given 
three meals a day, taught to read and write, and they are taught to 
hate, and then shipped out to military camps which become part of the 
armies which are supposed to wage jihad against the West.
  Recently in the New York City Times there was an article which shows 
that the right-wing Hindus in India are doing the same thing. They are 
taking poor children with nowhere else to go, and raising these 
children up as soldiers. Observing these manifestations in the world of 
Islam, I began to think about what happens in this country. It dawned 
on me if we examine the names that are on the Vietnam War Memorial Wall 
in Washington, and I challenge the Heritage Foundation or anyone else 
who has the staff to do it to challenge me, the majority who died for 
the country are poor people.
  We know from the Civil War if you got drafted, you could pay for 
someone to take your place. In Korea and Vietnam, the majority also 
were poor people. Those were the foot soldiers. If we ever have a 
situation where we start drafting people again, those are going to be 
the foot soldiers again. Let us not treat our poor children with 
contempt. They are as vital to America as anyone else.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from New York 
(Mr. Owens) makes an eloquent point, and I just want to follow up, and 
I heard the gentleman's comment earlier, it seems they are bragging 
that this promotes work. My understanding is that we should be 
promoting children, to have health care and good nutrition. I believe 
this bill is misdirected because it takes parents away from nurturing 
children. The gentleman is absolutely correct in saying that this bill 
does not emphasize the values of helping poor people who just want an 
opportunity.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, this is a program for children. The only 
able-bodied adults who get safety net benefits are farmers in America. 
I must mention that because of the fact that we have suddenly decided 
to become fiscally responsible in this bill. We do not have the money 
for the kind of day-care we need. Part of the money was spent on our 
farm bill where in order to be a participant, you can make as much as 
$2.5 million a year. And we put a cap on the amount of taxpayer dollars 
that the farmers can receive of $390,000. That is where the obscenity 
is in terms of the misapplication and misappropriation of taxpayers' 
dollars. To nurture children makes more sense. The costs are far lower.
  If there is anybody in America that ought to be crowned as royalty, 
and we do not have royalty in America, but it would be the people who 
have been maimed and killed in all of our wars. They would be 
designated as the royal class, and we would find that the overwhelming 
would be poor people, the sons and daughters of poor families.




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