[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 81 (Wednesday, May 16, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H5283-H5289]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
OPPOSE THE SECOND CHANCE ACT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, as always, it is such an honor to be part
of this body when you know the sacrifices that have been made by so
many just to allow us to be here at this time in history.
There is a defense bill that we will be talking about some in the
next 60 minutes, but in leading up to that, I wanted to address a bill
that was on the suspension calendar earlier this week and was pulled
from the suspension calendar, and I have been told it probably will be
coming up very soon.
Like so many things that have been done in this body that has
unintended consequences, the Second Chance Act is very well
intentioned. As a former judge, I know well that we have got to do a
better job of rehabilitating, of educating, with drug treatment and
alcohol treatment for those that are incarcerated in our prisons. There
is just no question that we should do a better job with those things.
Unfortunately, this well-meaning bill, the Second Chance Act, goes so
far beyond what is helpful. This bill will provide more benefits to
felons than are available to those risking their lives in the service
of our United States military.
For example, this bill apparently will provide over $360 million. I
say apparently will provide over that amount, because one provision
says ``such sums as may be necessary.'' There is no way to know how
much money that may be. But, in any event, this bill, for example,
seems to leave medical care potentially unending after confinement.
I realize as a Republican I was in the minority in our Judiciary
Committee hearing, so I attempted to limit the medical care to 6 months
after a criminal was released from prison for the extent of the medical
care. That was voted down by the majority, who believed that we should
leave it open-ended.
I was in the United States Army for 4 years, and I can tell you that
unless you retire with over 20 years of active military service or you
are disabled as a result of your military service, you have no medical
care waiting for you at the end of your service. That means if a
military member who serves less than 20 years wants a chance at free
medical, he will need to commit a serious enough crime to get him
locked up.
When a military member is sent to serve on one of the many
unaccompanied tours of duty, his family suffers greatly, particularly
if this is a Reservist or a National Guard member. However, under this
Second Chance Act, which is really more of an ``Infinite Chance Act,''
we will provide taxpayer dollars to help with transportation for an
inmate's family to get to and from the prison. Grant dollars are there
for that.
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If you are in the military on an unaccompanied tour and you would
like to have your children nearby, you are out of luck. However, if you
are a confined felon, under this bill there will be tax dollars in the
way of grants to pay for nurseries or preschools at the prison so you
can have your children close to you.
If you are a U.S. servicemember away from home and long to provide
your family or your children the technology to ease the distance
between you and to ease the loneliness, you either must reach into your
small amount of pay, or you could commit a felony and get locked up
because there are millions of dollars in this Second Chance bill for
grants for technology or tapes or DVD or players, even cell phones,
things that help bridge the distance.
[[Page H5284]]
A criminal may have broken into your home and stolen or destroyed
your property, but under the Second Chance Act, we are going to take
some more of your tax dollars to help provide criminals or their
families with this type of technology.
Law enforcement in this country get paid very little compared to the
protection they afford us, and they do not get the government to buy
such things for their families, but the criminals they lock up under
this Democratic majority bill will have this as a bonus.
If you are in the military and you want plastic surgery to make you
look better, normally you are out of luck for elective surgery. But
when I tried to limit this legislation in the Judiciary Committee to
prevent tax dollars from being spent for things like rhinoplasty, a
nose job, liposuction, breast augmentation, even that amendment was
voted down by the majority.
Now, if you are a law-abiding citizen and you do not like your field
of employment, you have to scrape together enough money to also go to
school or be retrained in order to find another job. Not so under this
bill if you commit a heinous crime. If you go to prison, there is grant
money in this bill, not merely to train you in prison; but after you
get out, there is grant money. We can retrain you every time you want
to change jobs. We can pay grant money to agencies to find you new
jobs.
This is a well-intentioned bill, just as the legislation in the 1960s
that decided to do something to help mothers, single mothers, unwed
mothers who were having children and having to deal with deadbeat
fathers. So back in the 1960s, the decision was made, best intentioned,
we want to help these single moms so we are going to start as a Federal
Government paying for every child you can have out of wedlock. It was
well-intentioned, but 40 years later we have gotten exactly what we
have paid for.
As a broken-hearted judge, I had to sentence women who said they were
encouraged to have a baby in order to start getting a government check.
So they dropped out of school, had a baby, and then tried to live off
the relatively small income they were paid from the government to have
babies out of wedlock. And they told me that started their decline into
desperation that ultimately led them to my courtroom, either for
welfare fraud when they got so desperate they realized they needed to
get a job but they couldn't give up their child support from the
government, so they didn't report it and then they came to me for
welfare fraud. Or some others would realize in desperation they
couldn't live on the small amount that the government paid them to have
children out of wedlock, so they got into the terrible drug trade and
that brought them to my court.
I came to Congress deeply desiring to avoid creating benefits for
doing something that hurts you. Yet here we are again taking this same
kind of well-meaning perilous road.
The bill is well-intended, but when Congress creates more benefits
for creating serious crimes than for risking life and limb in the
United States military, guess which one you will have more of 40 years
from now?
There are a number of groups who support the Second Chance Act. They
have big hearts. They mean well. They want to help criminals turn their
lives around; but they don't realize the full parameters of this bill.
So we are going to talk a bit tonight about the military, but I
wanted to start off and touch on this since it is a bill that provides
more benefits for those who commit serious enough crimes to be locked
up than we are currently providing for our United States servicemembers
in a number of areas, and so I think it needs a second look. I am
hopeful that we will be able to do that. I don't know when it comes up
if we will be able to make amendments. I certainly hope that the
procedures that have been followed so far this year that make this the
most partisan Congress in history, there was a rule that was attempted
to be changed today that has not been changed since 1822. That would
have made it an even more partisan Congress since 1822.
So I am glad after a procedural stand taken by the minority that we
were able to get that worked out at least for the next couple of weeks
and we will be able to have some limited participation. I hope we will
be able to have participation in this bill.
I see that my colleague and dear friend, the gentlewoman from
Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) is here, another former judge, a recovering
judge as he likes to say, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter) is also
here. At this time I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter).
Mr. CARTER. I thank my good friend and fellow judge from Texas.
I would like to ask a couple of questions. This Second Chance Act is
a very new concept in criminal justice from my viewpoint. When you
point out that we are actually going to create a series of benefits for
people who have committed felony crimes that are not available to the
average American citizen, not even available to those people who stand
in harm's way and stand on the wall to protect our Nation every night
from harm, and yet they are going to be available to people who commit
acts, felony acts, punishable by long terms in the penitentiary.
I want to get clear exactly this Second Chance Act and these
benefits, almost entitlements that are being created by this bill, does
that pertain to only people who are incarcerated in Federal
penitentiaries or does it expand to the States and localities?
Mr. GOHMERT. I appreciate the question, and the answer is that this
is such a big-hearted bill from the majority that it will be able to
provide grants to people in Federal prisons, after they are released
from Federal prison, people in State prisons, people in county jails.
We are going to make this program, and this is just a start. This
$360 million really is just seed money to see how many we can help with
that and then take off after that. This is just the beginning. But the
answer is it will be for anyone who commits a serious enough offense or
alleged offense to get themselves locked up wherever they get locked up
in the United States.
Mr. CARTER. I apologize to my colleague, Mr. Gohmert. I didn't hear
all of the benefits because I came in on the tail-end, but you and I
have talked about this briefly. But this training and finding jobs
benefit, would that include being able to get a grant to say attend the
University of Texas or your beloved Texas A&M University?
Mr. GOHMERT. It will provide training education grants. It is open-
ended enough, that is a possibility, yes.
Mr. CARTER. So you could apply for a grant to attend the college or
university of your choice?
Mr. GOHMERT. There are organizations that could apply for the grants
to assist in that education, yes.
Mr. CARTER. I think you will agree with me at least in the Texas
prison system, an ambitious prisoner who is trying to turn his life
around can get a bachelor's degree, can also get a master's degree, and
I suppose if he stayed in prison long enough, he can get a doctor's
degree. One school that has correspondence courses is the University of
Maryland, which is not far from here, and a prisoner in the Texas
prison system can get the degree of his choice if he is willing to work
hard enough there.
I happen to know in the Texas prison system one of the most sought-
after jobs, and I point out jobs where you work for the skill, is in
the print shop with very high tech print training. And most of the
people who finish that training, and I have actually had prisoners that
I have sent to prison who have asked not to be paroled until they have
completed their term of working in the print shop because after they
have done their print apprenticeship, they could get jobs coming
straight out of prison at $60,000 to $75,000 a year as a master
printer. It is not like we are not offering an opportunity to work your
way to success in prison today; would you agree with that?
Mr. GOHMERT. Yes, that is absolutely true. But another dimension that
is added to this is the fact that it can go on beyond your
incarceration.
You and I both agree that when it comes to retraining and education
and drug and alcohol treatment, we really do need to do a better job of
that in prisons. But this goes even beyond that, and there is no end in
sight. Like I said, I tried to end some of these benefits at 6 months
after release. One of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle
asked me what was so magic about 6 months after release from prison. I
said there was nothing magic
[[Page H5285]]
about it. I think the training and education should end when you are
released, but since I am a Republican and I am in the minority, I knew
that they didn't want to end it the day you got out of prison. I was
hopeful they would be willing to stop spending tax dollars for
criminals who had been incarcerated at least 6 months after they are
released. Unfortunately, they voted that down. At this point it is open
end. As you are aware, we have never continued to provide benefits to
convicted felons after they get out of prison.
Mr. CARTER. Right now you are talking about $350 million. If this
program continues the way most programs that we breathe life into in
Congress, then it will continue to grow like mushrooms after a rain,
and at some point in time, this theoretically could go on forever in
the life of a prisoner. But did you say they are also being guaranteed
medical benefits?
Mr. GOHMERT. It is not a guarantee, but it is the provision that
there are grants available to provide medical care, open-ended medical
care. I tried to limit it to 6 months after prison. It should be
limited to the day they walk out.
I tried to limit it to no plastic surgery in prison. They didn't do
that. So, yes. You can continue to apply for medical care.
Mr. CARTER. So if I understand what you are talking about here, we
have people in the United States today that work 10 or 12-hour days,
some of them 6 days a week, and they are struggling to pay their own
medical bills and pay for health care insurance. They are asking us,
crying out to us for help on paying their medical bills.
So there is an easy solution to their problem. Under this bill,
quickly get a handgun and commit a felony. You serve a little time, and
you are back out with the ability to get grants to pay for your medical
bills.
It reminds me of stories that we have heard and experienced of the
guy who just before Christmas throws a brick through a window so he can
spend a warm night and have Christmas dinner in the county jail. There
are people who do that. You know that happens and I know that happens.
But is that what we want? Are we saying that the good-heartedness of
the American people, and I think there are good-hearted people that are
behind thing.
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I don't think they have thought it out, and I am not for punishing
criminals. I'm for giving them a start, but what do we owe to the
people who have violated the laws of our society? I think we owe them a
fair chance, but I don't think we owe them an open-ended chance for the
rest of perpetuity.
Mr. GOHMERT. You make a great point about this being just the start,
the well over $360 million, but I love Ronald Reagan's old quote about,
beginning a government program is the closest thing to eternal life on
earth that we. Have and so if Reagan was right about that, just
beginning a program like this means as long as there's a United States,
it's probably going to have a life.
Mr. CARTER. I think they told us that that $25 million was all food
stamps was ever going to cost us. I don't even know what the number is,
the billions of dollars that we are into that now. These programs do
tend to have a life of their own.
I thank you for raising this issue. I think this issue is important
for the Members of Congress and for America to know that we are,
unfortunately, starting down the road of, in my opinion, the
possibility of awarding illegal behavior. It concerns me greatly, and I
thank you for raising this issue.
Mr. GOHMERT. I thank the gentleman from Texas, dear friend, and with
regard to this bill, it is well-intentioned. They mean well, and I
believe they believe the things they said.
And it takes me back to the arguments in this House, on the floor of
this House, back in 1935, 1936, when something called Social Security
was being created. And I am informed that debate came up regarding this
new creation called a Social Security number, and some were upset and
they said they were very concerned that that might end up becoming a
national identification number. There were people who promised and
assured and said there's no way that will ever happen; the Social
Security number will be only used to just number the account, it will
never be an identification. We can assure you that will never be, that
situation, which is kind of like somebody from the government showing
up at the door and saying I'm here to help you. You just get really
concerned that that's not the case.
But I see our friend from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) at the mike. I
would yield to Mrs. Blackburn.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for
yielding, and I am so pleased to be joined by three gentlemen from
Texas, if you will, two judges and a physician. And we are all part of
the Republican Study Committee and are certainly committed to carrying
forth the conservative values that we appreciate here in this House.
Mr. Speaker, I have enjoyed hearing the conversation and listening to
the conversation and discussion between my two colleagues as they have
talked about this law that is a fairness issue, and I think so many
people do look at it and say, my goodness, $350 million for those that
are in prison, and as the gentleman said, rewarding illegal behavior.
And that is something that people are very sensitive to right now,
especially in light of the impact that illegal immigration has made on
so many of our communities, the cost to those communities and the
concern with our citizens that there are some here in this body that
would like to consider amnesty and reward those that have broken the
rule of law.
I also enjoyed the conversation about health care and that being
provided to those that have been imprisoned. I've been visiting with my
Realtors from Tennessee, yesterday and today. They've been on the Hill.
The number one issue for them is small business health plans and access
to affordable health care. And these are people that really do such a
great job in working to improve the quality of life and work with our
communities. And they are struggling with providing health care for
their employees. They are struggling with providing health care for
their families and insurance.
And then when you hear about those that are imprisoned, as they leave
having grants for health care provisions, you know, there's just
something not right about that. There is something that is a little bit
inappropriate about them having access to that when hardworking,
middle-class families are struggling with that issue.
We have got so many things to talk about. We have had such an
interesting day here. We have had some procedural moves, as Mr. Gohmert
mentioned. There is a rule that the majority was trying to change. It
dealt with germaneness. This is a rule that has been on the books since
1822, part of our House rules, part of the decorum and conduct of the
House. And for expedience, for convenience, this is something that they
were choosing to try to change, very unfortunate, and the kind of
change the American people certainly did not vote for. They want to see
the rules of the House and of this great institution respected, and
it's been unfortunate.
I have been greatly disappointed, and as my constituents, I've heard
from three or four of them during the day that have said what's going
on. And it's been with great disappointment that I've explained to them
that for power, the sake of power, we saw the majority trying to
eliminate a rule that has been a part of the order of this House since
1822. And we hope that they will push that aside and decide that they
are going to abide by the rules of the House as they have been laid
forth and have worked well for centuries, if you will.
I think also we could touch today on the fact that today marks 100
days since President Bush sent the request over for supplemental
spending for our troops. It has been 100 days of inaction or putting
forward bills that they knew were going to be vetoed, of political
grandstanding, and I find that to be unfortunate. And it is with regret
that we have to admit that that is a tactic and a mode of operation
that the majority has decided to take.
They have had time to pass D.C. having the right to vote. They've had
time to pass bills that would recognize schools. They've had time to
name post offices. They've passed bills on global warming. They've
passed legislation to
[[Page H5286]]
protect wild horses, but there hasn't been time to craft a bill to get
money to our troops in the field.
It is a matter of priorities, Mr. Speaker, and how unfortunate that
the frivolous nature of some of the legislation that has come before
us, that has consumed the time of this body, would be placed as a
priority above the legislation to get funding to our troops in the
field. And our soldiers are running out of cash. This effort is running
out of cash, and we are in a global war on terror, and it is imperative
that we get that money where it needs to be to those troops.
But that has not been the priority of the majority. They chose to
bring forward a supplemental bill that they knew was going to be vetoed
because it had an additional $24 billion worth of pork barrel spending.
So then they decided to rework it and break it into two supplementals
so that the California salmon could get their money and you could get
Ag money and you could get Katrina relief money. You could get all this
spending and not put it through regular order, but let's get that money
to that California salmon out there. We've already had Tuna-gate; so
now let's go throw some more money in here for this.
And how very unfortunate to that put into a wartime supplemental.
This is a wartime supplemental. Our primary responsibility is keeping
our Nation safe, keeping it secure, making certain that when you get in
that car to get those children to the bus stop, to go to school, when
they go to that school, you know that they are safe, that you're not
going to have a group of terrorists like the Ft. Dix six come show up
at the shopping mall or at the college baseball game and try to destroy
our citizens. People want that type security, and it is unfortunate
that that has not been a priority.
I tell you, I look at what is happening before us and some of the
things that have been passed by this body, naming the post offices and
recognizing schools and horse legislation and some of those things, and
you'd think maybe the Democrats have an insecurity agenda. Maybe that
is their agenda for this session, this 110th Congress.
And then as we look at the supplemental, which was supposed to be
passed and out of the way before we started on DOD appropriations for
next year, and that is what has been before us today, we also are in
the midst of looking at the budget which contains a $392.5 billion tax
increase over 5-years, the single largest tax increase in American
history, $392.5 billion. You would see your marginal rates increase.
You would see the cap gains rate increase. Child tax credit would be
cut in half. Tennessee and Texas are two States that enjoy sales tax
deductibility because we're wonderful States without a State income
tax. That would go away. $392.5 billion tax increase over 5 years,
single largest tax increase in history. It would cost $2,611 per
taxpayer in my State of Tennessee. That is the amount of increase that
we are looking at.
And quite frankly, Mr. Speaker, my constituents know that government
is overspent and taxpayers are overtaxed and they are tired of it. They
also know that government does not have a revenue problem. It is a
spending problem that government has, and my constituents also believe
that if 10 percent is good enough for God on Sunday, then it ought to
be good enough for the government. And they believe that we should
learn to live within our means.
They are tired of working hard, getting their paycheck, looking at
that pay stub and realizing that the Federal Government has first right
of refusal to their paycheck because before that worker ever gets that
paycheck deposited in his account, the Federal Government has put his
hand into that wallet and has extracted every dollar they want out of
that paycheck. Social Security comes out, your Medicare comes out, all
your taxes come out. There you go. There you go, Mr. Speaker. The
Federal Government has first right of refusal on your paycheck, and
that is something that it is time that we should be changing.
We have so many things that are budget issues, and I want to circle
back around to the health care issue that comes back to us every time
we look at the budget, every time we look at DOD, Department of
Defense, health care comes to the forefront. And we're so fortunate at
our Energy and Commerce Committee that we have some physicians who
serve on that committee with us, who are articulate and well-versed in
health care and what it is, what we need to do in order to be certain
that this Nation stays healthy, individuals stay healthy but that our
health care delivery systems stay healthy.
I would like to yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) for
some comments on the health care issue.
Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding, and I
want to talk about something that really may be a fairly small part
when we talk about the overall $2.99 trillion Federal budget. But in
the Republican budget, in the minority's budget, that was not passed
when we did our budgetary work 2 months ago, I included some work on a
bill, a medical liability reform bill based off of law that was passed
in Texas in 2003. This bill is essentially a bill that limits, that it
does cap awards on noneconomic damages a little different from the bill
that we passed several times on the floor of this House in the past 4
years.
The bill that we have had on the floor of the House the past 4 years
has been based off the California law, the Medical Injury Compensation
Reform Act of 1975 which caps noneconomic damages at $250,000.
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Now, in Texas, back in the legislative session that occurred in 2003,
an effort was made, Texas was in a significant problem as far as
medical liability was concerned. We had lost most of our medical
liability insurers from the State. They had simply closed up shop and
left because they could not see a future in providing medical liability
insurance in the State of Texas. We went from 17 insurers down to two
by the end of 2002. Rates were increasing year over year. My personal
situation, rates were increasing by 30 to 50 percent a year.
The State of Texas, the State legislature, passed a medical liability
reform based off the California law, but updated for the 21st century.
Instead of a single $250,000 cap, there was a $250,000 cap on
noneconomic damages as it pertained to the physician, a $250,000 cap on
noneconomic damages as it pertained to the hospital, and an additional
$250,000 cap as it pertained to a second hospital or nursing home, if
one was involved, so an aggregate cap of $750,000.
Well, the States are great laboratories for public policy. How is it
done back in the State of Texas? Remember we dropped from 17 insurers
down to two because of the medical liability crisis in the State? We
are now back up to 14 or 15 carriers; and, most importantly, those
carriers have returned to the State of Tex tech without an increase in
premium.
What about the physicians who were paying the premiums that were
inexorably going up? Again, a 20 to 50 percent per year increase that I
saw myself, in my practice. What has happened? Texas Medical Liability
Trust, my last insurer of record before I came to Congress, has reduced
rates for physicians now an aggregate of 22 percent in the past 3
years.
That is significant, because, remember, the rate of rise was going up
20, 30, 40 percent a year. Now it's back down 22 percent and aggregate
since this bill was passed.
Probably one of the most important unintended beneficiaries of this
was the small community not-for-profit hospital, who was self-insured
for medical liability. They have been able to take money out of those
escrow accounts and put it back to work for those hospitals capitalize
improvements, paying nurse's salaries, the kinds of things you want
your small not-for-profit community-based hospitals to be doing, not
holding money in escrow against that inevitable liability suit that
might occur.
Well, under the Texas plan, I took the language of the Texas plan,
worked it so it would fit within our constructs here in the House of
Representatives, offered it to the ranking member of the Budget
Committee. He had scored by the Congressional Budget Office, and the
Texas plan, as applied through the House of Representatives to the
entire 50 States, would yield a savings of $3.8 billion over 5 years.
Not a mammoth amount of money when you are talking about a $2.999
trillion budget, but savings nonetheless, monies that we will
[[Page H5287]]
leave on the table in this budgetary cycle that could have gone to some
of the other spending priorities that we hear so much about.
It could have gone for anything else so far as increase in providing
medical services. We will have to reauthorize SCHIP this year. We will
have to find billions of dollars for that program. Here is $3.8 billion
that he with left on the table because the majority chose not to look
at this in the budgets that they passed.
The other thing that is missing in this debate which we just cannot
pay enough attention to, people say, well, you are from Texas, Texas
has done the work. Why do you even care if there is any type of
national solution? Well, it's not just the $3.8 billion that we would
save under the budgetary cycle over the next years. It's the cost of
defensive medicine. It is very, very hard to get a handle on the cost
of what that defensive medicine is.
But consider this, 1996, a study done, Stanford University, revealed
that in the Medicare system alone, in the Medicare system alone, the
cost of defensive medicine was approximately 28- to $30 billion a year.
That was 10 years ago. I suspect that number is higher today. That's
why we can scarcely afford to continue the trajectory we are on with
the medical liability issue in this country.
Another consideration, young people, getting out of college,
considering medical school, put the brakes on their dreams. I don't
know if I want to do that. I don't know if I want to face all of the
hassles you have to face in the practice of medicine and those large
liability insurance payments as well.
We are keeping young people out of the practice, of considering the
practice of a health care profession for their livelihood because of
the burden that we put upon them, not just with how we reimburse
physicians at a Federal level, that's a discussion for another day, but
with the burden that we put on them with health professions, loans that
they have to take out to get through school, they carry a big debt load
when they get out of medical school. Then on top of that, they will
have to go out and borrow huge sums of money just to pay their
liability insurance. Many of them simply turn off that dream and say I
will do something else. There is another path for me. I don't need to
choose a career in health.
This is the thing that we have to consider. We have to focus on how
we are affecting our physician workforce for the future, how we are
affecting the health care that you are our children and our children's
children will receive.
I appreciate the opportunity to talk on this subject. As you know, I
will do it at almost any time and work it into any context. But it does
have a budgetary role. It is a significant one.
We shouldn't turn our backs on that $3.8 billion that's lying on the
table right now waiting for us to pass the sensible legislation.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentleman from Texas. I appreciate this
so much. How interesting that something that would yield a $3.8 billion
savings has been overlooked and left on the table. But I think that
what we see from this, and what the takeaway for us is, that we have an
innovative idea, and as the physician from Texas said, our States are
great labs for finding things that work. They do such a great job
looking at needed reforms, whether they are educational reforms or
health care reforms, and finding things that work.
You take a program like the liability reforms in Texas that have
reduced insurance rates by over 22 percent, and then you run that out
on a national basis and you say, okay, over 5 years, we can save $3.8
billion, not to include it, when you know it's a concept that works,
not to bring it forward for discussion from the House, so that you can
elevate the awareness of this.
Look for a pilot project for this if you need be, if you need further
evidence and some qualified data to work from. But to be able to say,
all right, we are just not going to do this because we like the status
quo, we like the way the status quo is, and we are not interested in
something that will be new, different, or maybe save some money.
We would rather be spending money and spending they are, to the tune
of the single largest tax increase in history that the liberal majority
and the liberal leadership in this House is bringing forward in their
budget, $392.5 billion over a period of 5 years.
It has been a pleasure to stand with my colleagues tonight and to
talk a little bit about our budget, to talk about some of the
gamesmanship, if you will, that has taken place as the majority has
tried to change a rule that has been on the books since 1822, lack of
respect for the traditions of the institution.
We also would recognize with sorrow the fact that this is the 100th
day since President Bush said, our men and women in uniform need
additional funds. It is an imperative that we get the funds to them,
and still no bill in sight. We have a Memorial Day break coming up upon
us. I think it's unfortunate.
Mr. GOHMERT. I yield to my friend from Texas.
Mr. CARTER. I want to expand a little bit on what my good friend from
Tennessee was talking about.
I happen to be blessed to have Fort Hood, Texas, in my district,
which is the only division 2 post in America. It is the largest
gathering of military forces on Earth, and we have experienced already,
since I have been in Congress, a delay on getting a supplemental to the
post.
Now, I think the American people need to know, and I would hope my
colleagues in Congress would know, that today, as we speak, there are
between 4- and 5,000 American soldiers going door-to-door in Baghdad
and looking for three soldiers. Why is that? Why that concentration of
effort?
Because the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps and
every one of our services, they value every human life that they have.
They care about their soldiers, and they are showing it by 24/7 putting
their lives on the line looking for these guys, because they know what
happens to these prisoners, what has happened in the past, people who
were castrated and skinned alive, and their throats cut, and left on
the side of the road dead with bombs strapped to their bodies. So they
care about those soldiers.
This issue goes right down to what happens at home, when the
supplemental money that provides the bullets, ammunition,
transportation, vehicles for our soldiers in harm's way, when this
Congress fails to meet its obligation to those brave men and women. By
passing a supplemental, what does the Army do? Do they let the guys in
the war suffer the consequences? No.
What happens is they look into the pocketbooks back home, and they
have to cut the soldiers that are back in Texas or back in Tennessee or
back in one of the other fine States in this union, they have to reduce
what they have available for training, for services on their post.
You know, last year, when we didn't get the supplemental done until
August, I can tell you that the people of Killeen, where Fort Hood is
located, the people on the post, were talking about will we have enough
money to pay the bills, the kinds of bills that American citizens
understand, light bills, water bills, service bills, cutting the grass.
Are we going to be able to provide that at this post because the
money, first, goes to the war fighters. They don't leave American
soldiers in harm's way. So they cut their own pocketbooks.
Are we going to be able to pay the people we have contracted with to
provide services? These issues are facing our soldiers today, because
of the 100-day delay in providing this supplemental for our soldiers.
So it's important to know that our Army will not leave those guys
without the goods that they need, and they will cut whatever they have
to at home much.
But what does that mean to the next round of people that may have to
go back to that war or any war? Also, you have at risk the possibility
of cutting the training budgets for these soldiers, and what makes the
American fighting man so superior to anybody on Earth? He is the best-
trained soldier that ever took to the field. But if you cut the
training bills in order to provide bullets for the guys in harm's way,
then the training has to sacrifice. We can't get to that point. It is
critical that we get a supplement passed from the standpoint of the
American soldier.
Finally, today, we heard all rhetoric on this great, by the way,
great bill
[[Page H5288]]
that we just passed on defense authorization. We are providing funds
for the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, yes, in 2008.
But what are we going to do about it now? I think this is something
that really has to be addressed because we are harming the best
military on earth.
Mr. GOHMERT. I thank my former judge friend. You brought up about our
soldiers going door-to-door in Iraq looking for the three soldiers that
are missing, how critical intelligence is.
Now, I know the gentleman from Texas, my friend, the gentlelady from
Tennessee, you both recall, though none of us were in Congress, I
recall, because I was in the Army, and when President Carter started
making Draconian cuts in our intelligence, and started cutting out
critical areas of intelligence that would help us in the military, it
hurt.
Now, when you are in the military, you cannot say anything derogatory
about your Commander in Chief, that is a court martialable offense.
But we took up an intelligence bill, and, of course, as we know, some
of the information that we have to go up and review in a classified
setting, in a top secret setting, and things we learned cannot be
revealed and will not be disclosed and divulged, but something that has
been discussed on this floor in that intelligence bill is we cut some
vital programs. We cut some vital eyes and years information that would
help our military to have what they need to know where the enemy is,
where they are coming from, what they are doing, those kinds of things.
{time} 2330
And to help look for global warning evidence, to look for global
warming evidence. I don't know about you all, I was seeing just this
week some information about the polar ice caps melting, how devastating
that can be, how that can bring about the end of the world, and we have
to cut CO2 emissions. But the polar ice caps I am talking
about were on Mars.
Now, how are our CO2 emissions on Earth, staying in our
atmosphere, causing the Mars polar ice caps to melt? Gee, could it have
something to do with maybe just more sunspots? In any event, that is a
whole different matter.
The Constitution says we are to provide for the common defense. And
when you cut programs that will help with eyes and ears to our
military, I don't see how you can go home feeling too good about what
we have done.
I yield to my friend from Tennessee.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentleman for yielding. It has been so
interesting to me, and the gentleman mentioned Fort Hood and Killeen,
Texas and his constituents there. Fort Campbell is in my district in
Montgomery County, Tennessee, and to see these men and women, and to
hear their stories and to see their need, as I have worked with that
post since coming to Congress and working to meet their needs, one of
the lessons to me has been, and I think this should be one of the
lessons learned for all of us who are Members in Congress, when you cut
funding to programs like the military, then there is a price to pay for
that. And we are constitutionally charged and directed to provide for
the common defense and the security of this Nation.
One of the things that happened during the Clinton Presidency, in
order to generate a surplus, was cutting the military funding and
cutting the intelligence funding. And we have heard, 4 years. This is
not anecdotal, it is something that is fact and something that was
bragged about, actually, a little bit in the late 1990s, was not
putting that money into R&D, not researching the next generation of
tanks or choppers or fighters or artillery or armor, because the Cold
War was over and there wasn't a big threat. So let's cut that funding,
and then let's put that money into something else.
And the same thing happened with intelligence, as the gentleman was
saying. There was money that was cut back from that and put into social
programs and domestic programs and not put into keeping that
intelligence network strong and viable. And it takes about 5 years for
one of our intelligence agents to develop an asset that is a reliable
asset for information to protect our country. And I hope this is a
lesson learned.
When we look at what happened to our country on September 11th, that
is the date our Nation stopped responding to acts of terrorism as civil
disobedience and started responding to acts of terrorism as an act of
war, September 11th. We had been attacked for 2 decades prior to that,
but that day was the day it changed. And as we looked at that and
realized that on September 11, 2001, we were not under a George Bush
budget, we were still under a Bill Clinton budget, and the Bush budget
was kicking in about the 1st of October.
We have to realize that what you had were many years where our
military had been telling us, we are pulling down on all of our
resources, our reserve resources, we are pulling these down; and we
need to be replenishing, we need to be careful where we are. I think
that is a lesson, and I hope it is a lesson that we realize, that when
you put something in place, you have to maintain it. When you build for
the common defense, you need to maintain that in order to be able to
stay strong.
I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. GOHMERT. I thank the gentlelady. You have made some great points.
During the 1990s, though, we were assured; we heard so many times all
these lies about weapons of mass destruction. And maybe it is
unfortunate that it turns out that all the times President Clinton
assured us that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, maybe they were
right, maybe President Clinton was lying all those times that he said
Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Maybe Madeline Albright was lying
all those times she said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Maybe
George Bush should not have believed all the information they provided
to him about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction.
But, nonetheless, we are now hearing people even in some of the
debates and whatnot blaming this President and saying, if we would just
leave the jihadist extremists alone, they will leave us alone.
And they want to blame President Bush, the current President Bush for
our Americans being killed. If you are going to do that, though, you
have to blame President Clinton for 9/11 because all the time, he was
President. Of course, they tried the World Trade Center bombing in 1993
that failed, and then they began planning for the next, and that was 9/
11.
Now, I feel like President Clinton made a lot of mistakes, but to
blame him for Muslims plotting during the entire time he was President
to blow up and kill thousands of Americans doesn't fit, because during
his Presidency this country, nearly every time President Clinton
committed troops or military assets it was to protect Muslims around
the world. And yet all that time the jihadist extremists were plotting
to kill thousands of Americans. So this stuff about blaming President
Bush doesn't wash.
You go back to 1979. I was at Fort Benning. The first jihadist
attack, taking our American embassy, that is an act of war. You are
attacking American property, that is an act of war. Taking hostages. We
did nothing but wring our hands and beg them to let them go. That was a
breakdown and that was a glitch right after we fled from Vietnam. It
was not a good chapter.
But the fact is, there are people that want to destroy our way of
life. And we took an oath to support and defend the Constitution. The
President did. I know, having taken that oath as a member of the United
States military before, that is all taken very seriously. And there are
people that want to destroy our way of life. We owe it to them to
provide them the common defense. And we see things being weakened here,
and it breaks my heart.
The American people, any time you see a program cut, whether it is
under President Carter, President Clinton, or now under the Democratic
majority cutting some intelligence program, and then you find out that
it goes to some pork barrel earmark to somebody in the majority, it
just breaks your heart, I can tell you, having been in the military
when those things happen. And so it is heartbreaking to see the way it
looks like we are going to head down that path with this Democratic
majority.
I would yield to my friend from Texas for further comment.
[[Page H5289]]
Mr. CARTER. I agree completely with what my friend Judge Gohmert had
to say. You have given a very good history of what has been the history
of the Democrat Party when they were in the majority or where they were
in control of the White House. They have a history of cutting and
providing less than the necessary supplies for our military.
In fact, one of the great brags that Al Gore used to say is that he
reduced the number of employees in the Federal Government by this huge
amount. But if you looked at where they came from, they were United
States soldiers. Members of the military made up the vast majority of
the numbers of reducing the size of government that were taken credit
for during the Clinton administration. They cut our Army down from
multidivisions, down to where it is now.
But you know what? That is all water under the bridge. You had
mentioned something that is very important to me: We took an oath.
We took an oath, and our colleague from Texas (Mr. Neugebauer) got
asked a question by one of his folks back home: Why do you feel so that
you are doing the right thing by providing for these guys that are
fighting over in Iraq?
He said, You know, it is easy to criticize. But when you become
responsible, then you have really got to look at it. And he said, I am
by my oath responsible to the American public to provide for the common
defense.
It as a perfect answer. That is exactly what we all did, Republican
and Democrat, is we took an oath to be responsible to the American
people to provide protection for those people. And some of these are
hard calls and hard votes. These are not for me. These are not for me
nor for anyone in this room. But it is a hard vote for some. So it is
just sad. And sometimes we have just got to remember why we are here.
I would like to mention one more thing because I know our time is
getting late. But we talked about this $392.5 billion tax increase that
is coming down the road. Let me point out to folks that are paying gas
prices. If you don't like $3 a gallon gasoline, which, by the way,
there was supposed to be an instant solution for that problem when the
new majority came into power, but we haven't seen it. In fact, it has
only been made worse, in my opinion.
But take that, and I looked at that long list of what it means to
everybody's district for this tax increase, and everybody gets--at
least $2,000 it is going to cost the average family, At least $2,000.
So take that money that you are putting aside to pay for that gas and
subtract $2,000 a year from it. So the price of gas is going up. If
nothing else, the price of gas is going up for the average American
family by this tax increase, and it is something that will hurt our
economy and turn us in the wrong direction.
I just wanted to mention that before we have to quit.
Mr. GOHMERT. And I appreciate the gentleman yielding back. It is a
good note to finish on because people are paying too much for gasoline.
And I go back to something I said in, January a few months ago, after
the Democratic majority rammed another bill through that was going to
cut the incentives for drilling, for refineries, some of the things
that we have done in the last couple of years that we were here.
And I came to the well and I said then, and I will finish with this:
If you are going to do things that make gasoline go up, at least have
pride enough when the price goes up to come to the floor and say, ``You
bet you we are the Democratic majority, and we drove up the price of
gas and we are proud of it.''
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