[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 107 (Friday, July 18, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1509]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E1509]]
            THE NATION MUST HONOR OUR WORKING FAMILY HEROES

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. MAJOR R. OWENS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 16, 2003

  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, the July 10th vote to allow the expenditure 
of funds to implement radical changes in the overtime provisions of the 
Wage and Hour Act was an outrageous and devastating attack on working 
families. Compounding the horror of this action is the recent 
announcement that our present complement of soldiers in Iraq, ninety 
percent of whom come from working families, will be forced into combat 
overtime for the indefinite future. Not even the one year rotation rule 
of Viet Nam will be applied to relieve their long ordeal under extreme 
heat and guerrilla warfare duress. Overtime in the dangerous defense of 
the nation is being mandated without controls while at the same time 
overtime wages to feed working families is being subjected to new 
schemes which reduce take-home pay. This is an unacceptable 
continuation of the gross exploitation and oppression of working 
families by the Republican's Scrooges who presently dominate the 
Congress and the White House. This nation faces a tragic predicament: 
An elite group of juvenile old men have plunged us into a war where 
great suffering and pain is being inflicted on working families who 
bear the brunt of the casualties on the front lines as well as the 
fallout from economic dislocations and recession here at home. It 
appears that the Republican well-to-do decision makers have great 
contempt for those who do the dangerous and dirty work for our nation. 
All Americans must remember the debt we owe to those who risk their 
last full measure of devotion. Or perhaps the powerful and the rich 
should go to the front lines first. The RAP poem below is a summary of 
my indignation on this critical action:

                         Let the Rich Go First

     Working Families
     Keep your soldiers at home,
     For overtime in Iraq
     No cash
     No comp time
     Not even gratitude,
     Republicans intrude
     To exempt all heroes,
     No combat rotation
     Life on indefinite probation
     Scrooges running the nation.
     To the front lines
     Let the rich go first--
     For blood they got a thirst,
     Let the superstars drink it
     In the glorious trenches;
     Leave the disadvantaged on the benches.
     Working Families
     Let the rich go first:
     The battlegrounds they always choose
     Their estates have the most to lose;
     Send highest IQs to
     Take positions at the front,
     Let them perform their best
     High tech warfare stunt;
     Working Families
     Keep your malnourished sons home--
     Harvard Yale kids should roam
     The world with guns and tanks,
     Reserve gold medals
     For the loyal Ivy League ranks.
     O say you can see
     Millionaire graduates
     Dying for you and me?
     Welfare Moms
     Have a message for the masters:
     Tell Uncle Sam
     His TANF pennies he can keep
     For food stamps we refuse to leap
     Through your hoops like beasts;
     Promise to leave our soldier alone
     And we'll find our own feasts.
     To Uncle Sam we offer a bargain--
     Don't throw us dirty crumbs
     Don't treat us like bums
     And then demand
     The full measure of devotion;
     Our minds are now in motion
     Class warfare
     Is not such a bad notion;
     Your swindle will not last
     Recruiters we won't let pass,
     Finally, we opened our eyes--
     Each family is a private enterprise,
     Each child a precious prize;
     We got American property rights,
     Before our children die in war
     This time we'll choose the fights.
     Let the rich go first:
     They worry about
     The overtime we abuse;
     The battlefields they always choose
     Their estates have the most to lose.
     Let the rich go first!

                          ____________________