[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 91 (Thursday, June 23, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H4464]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         REINSTATING THE DRAFT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Rangel) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RANGEL. My colleagues, once again I come before this House to ask 
you to reconsider establishing the draft. I know some of you think 
politically this doesn't make sense. But after listening to the 
President last night, the only people that I saw that were making 
sacrifices in these wars that have been undeclared have been our 
troops. They have volunteered. They come from communities that most of 
them are not wealthy. But when they get there, they defend the flag.
  Every war, every time our Nation is threatened, all of the American 
people should be prepared to make some sacrifice. Those of us in 
Congress, when we authorize troops to go overseas, should not say that 
we have volunteers willing to do it. We should say that we have 
Americans; they come from our families, our communities, our States, 
and their wealth should not even be an issue. Everyone should be up at 
bat.

                              {time}  1010

  Now that the President has dramatically reduced the need for all of 
these volunteers, why don't we mandate that every American make some 
sacrifice. Let them be trained during this transition as we withdraw 
our troops. Let them be able to do something to make certain that 
America remains strong.
  This is too serious an issue. It's not a Democrat or Republican 
issue; it's a moral issue. Trillions of dollars are spent on undeclared 
wars, but who's paying for it? The poorest among us, the lesser among 
us--in health care, in education, in homelessness, in joblessness. And 
now the wealthiest of Americans have the lowest tax rates since 1950. 
And really, it just bothers people when you say they, too, should make 
some sacrifices, not just for the war that I don't support, but for the 
security, the economic security of this Nation, where the debt ceiling 
is going to be an issue, and yet those that are paying for the cuts 
have nothing to do with the crisis that we're in.
  So I conclude, I'll be back in support of H.R. 1152. And I will ask 
you to consider that as we wind down from our involvement in the Middle 
East, think about giving some relief to our volunteers. Think about 
asking young Americans to make some type of commitment. Think about 
having an America that says, yes, I support the involvement and am 
prepared to make sacrifices, which includes my family, my community, 
and our great Nation.
  We should not just have professional volunteers; it is not American, 
it is not moral. When our country is involved, everyone should be 
prepared either to stand up and be counted or don't support this type 
of involvement. It is not just costly financially, but how America 
looks throughout the world, especially among our young people--most of 
whom do not know any period of time that we haven't been involved in a 
war.
  So if we're not prepared to be honest enough to call a war a war, if 
we're not prepared to have the Congress put every President, Republican 
or Democrat, on the line for constitutional reasons, for God's sake, 
let's find some fairness as we ask people to put their lives on the 
line for our great Nation. And it's not just their lives, it's not just 
how they come back home, but the mental disturbance and problems that 
we are bringing to our great country is going to be not just trillions 
of dollars but adversely affect our ability to deal with education and 
training and technology and research while we try so desperately hard 
to bring these people to some type of normality for the sacrifices 
they've made to our country.
  So H.R. 1152 only says, if we have to be involved, don't have just a 
small segment of our great Nation pay the ultimate sacrifice while 
others make no sacrifice at all. Please consider a bill that mandates 
that everybody from 18 to 25, 26 do some type of mandatory service for 
our great country, and we will only select those people that we need 
for the military. And if indeed it is a transition that we support, it 
means that they can support our country, our national security, support 
our Armed Forces, and not really--hopefully--be in harm's way.
  Please consider it, and please rest assured I will return with this 
plea from time to time. I thank this House for the opportunity.

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