[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 170 (Friday, November 21, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H12107]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 NEVER NEVER LAND OF CORPORATE WELFARE

  (Mr. EMANUEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues on the other side of the 
aisle always talk about being the protectors of the free market system 
and believes if the free market would operate without government 
hindrance, business would be fine and society would be fine.
  This week this House passed an energy bill that gave $20 billion of 
taxpayer money to companies to do drilling for oil, do their basic 
services, when they should be doing that on their own without taxpayer 
subsidies.
  Now, we are about to pass a prescription drug bill that pays HMOs $80 
billion to provide health insurance.
  These are the bastions of capitalism? We used to have ``end welfare 
as we know it.'' This is a new form of welfare. These are businesses 
who have come to rely on the government subsidies as the only way to 
operate their businesses. I think that today, rather than being the 
culture of the protectors of capitalism and the principles of 
capitalism, the Republican Party has become the bastions of the culture 
of welfare and we need to end welfare as it is being abused in our 
society.
  Lately, the way I have seen our government turn into literally a 
culture of welfare for corporate and special interests, I am beginning 
to think that we have been caught captive in the Never Never Land. It 
is not Michael Jackson, it is us who have been caught here in this 
culture of welfare that has come to dominate and be used by businesses 
that have come to rely on the government, and the taxpayers more 
importantly, to afford their basic bottom line.

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