[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 174 (Friday, November 9, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2377-E2378]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 3043, DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH 
AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS 
                               ACT, 2008

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. JAMES P. MORAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 6, 2007

  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support 
of the Conference Report on the Labor, Health and Human Services and 
Education and Military Construction/Veterans Affairs Appropriations 
bills. This bill begins to correct key deficits in biomedical research, 
elementary and secondary education, job training, and health care for 
veterans and civilians alike, and sets out a clear, sustainable vision 
for the future. I want to thank and congratulate Chairman Obey, Ranking 
Member Walsh, the Conferees and their staff for putting together such 
an excellent bill, one which will bring needed relief to so many of our 
constituents.
  The President, of course, has vowed to veto this bill, because he 
believes it costs too much, that we can't afford to make these 
investments in cancer research, in Head Start, in economic development. 
Meanwhile, the President is asking us to spend an additional $200 
billion this year alone in his misguided war in Iraq. $9.8 billion, the 
amount by which this bill exceeds the President's request, would pay 
for approximately 1 month of that war. Instead, this bill would use 
that money to help States provide health coverage to people with pre-
existing conditions, help college-ready low-income students afford 
higher education, and help low-income individuals and their families 
keep their homes warm in the wintertime--a winter-time that could well 
feature oil at costs in excess of $100 a barrel.
  The President says we can't afford to make these investments; I 
believe we can't afford not to. These are investments which pay 
dividends over time, investments which will keep America strong, 
competitive and healthy.
  While I strongly support this Conference Report, I would be remiss if 
I didn't express my concern that this bill includes a $27.8 million 
increase for abstinence education programs, which research has shown to 
be ineffective, and worse, often medically inaccurate. Since 2001, we 
have spent more than $1 billion on these programs, some of which tell 
our children that using condoms is ``like Russian Roulette,'' and that 
HIV/AIDS can be transmitted through skin-to-skin contact.

[[Page E2378]]

  Madam Speaker, teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections are 
serious problems that demand serious solutions. Of course we should 
want to delay the onset of sexual activity in our children--what parent 
of a teenager wouldn't want that? But we cannot let that desire blind 
us to the very real fact that teenagers, despite our best intentions, 
will and do have sex, and that our wanting them not to does not absolve 
us of our obligation to protect them and keep them safe.
  This money does not exist merely on paper--it is real money which we 
are borrowing from countries whose interests are inimical to our own, 
countries that have accumulated sovereign wealth funds at alarming 
rates over the past 6 years. And we are leaving this legacy of fiscal 
wreckage to our children, and our children's children, mortgaging away 
their future at a rate of more than $15,000 per second.
  Since 2001, China's accumulation of foreign reserves, mostly U.S. 
dollars, have increased from $46.6 billion to $1.066 trillion--that is, 
every new dollar we borrow adds leverage to China--which has profoundly 
different strategic aims than we do.
  The idea that this is a preferable alternative to a bill that would 
help 95 percent of the people who felt any impact from its passage is 
unconscionable. The idea that we should sacrifice the futures of our 
children and our grandchildren in order to have our cake and eat it 
too, to continue giving enormous tax preferences to the richest of the 
rich in this country is morally bankrupt and fiscally unsound.
  Madam Speaker, income is income. Even if we accept that there should 
be a distinction between the taxation of labor and capital income, 
income received as payment for the service of investing other people's 
money is not capital income under even the loosest of possible 
understandings. The idea that a hedge fund manager earning $500 million 
a year should be taxed at a lower rate than his secretary, who earns 
$40,000 a year is preposterous in both moral and economic terms and 
should embarrass us all. I know it embarrasses me, and that it 
embarrasses my constituents.
  This bill is about making a choice between what is right and what is 
easy. I applaud Chairman Rangel for standing firm in the face of 
overwhelming pressure to do the easy thing, for drawing a line in the 
sand and demanding that we pass a bill which is true to our principles. 
We were not elected to make easy choices--we were elected to do right 
by our constituents, their children, and their children's children. I 
am proud to support this bill today, and I urge my colleagues to do the 
same.

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