[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23877]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           ISSUES OF CONCERN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to speak on several unrelated 
but very important topics. First I want to quote from an Associated 
Press story of a few days ago: ``A billion-dollar-a-year air war 
forgotten by the outside world but droning on over dusty Iraqi towns 
does not appear to be getting Washington any closer to its ultimate 
goal of ousting President Saddam Hussein.''
  The Associated Press story said that we have dropped 1,400 bombs and 
missiles on Iraq since mid-December in this forgotten war. A forgotten 
war that is doing no good, wasting more than $2.6 million each day, 
bombing people who could be our friends, but instead making new enemies 
for the United States each and every day. A billion-dollar-a-year air 
war that is wasteful, useless, inhumane, and according to the 
Associated Press, not accomplishing its goal.
  Second, I want to mention another ridiculously wasteful project. A 
few days ago NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter because one 
engineering team used metric units while another used English units for 
a key spacecraft operation. If this had happened in the private sector, 
heads would have rolled. However, when it happens with taxpayer money 
done by totally protected civil servants and big government 
contractors, no one is really held accountable.
  We see over and over and over again that the Federal Government is 
unable to do anything in an economical, efficient, low-cost manner. 
Because it is other people's money, they really just do not care. If we 
want our money to be wasted, just turn it over to Federal bureaucrats. 
They will be paid regardless of how bad a job they do and at a rate 
that is about 50 percent higher than the average citizen for whom they 
are supposed to be working.
  Today we just cavalierly lose a $125 million machine because we have 
a government that is of, by, and for the bureaucrats instead of one 
that is of, by, and for the people.
  Third, Mr. Speaker, let me mention the scandalous grant of clemency 
to the 16 Puerto Rican terrorists responsible for 130 bombings. These 
bombings killed six people. They left six people dead, and maimed and 
injured 84 others. One New York City policeman lost his leg and one 
lost his sight and has 20 pins holding his head together, and the 
President and the Department of Justice are refusing to give 
congressional committees the information and papers leading to these 
grants of clemency. What are they trying to hide?
  Senator Orrin Hatch, a Member of the other body and chairman of its 
Committee on the Judiciary said, ``The Justice Department today is run 
by people who do not care about the law.'' The grants of clemency were 
given against the advice of every law enforcement agency asked about 
them.

                              {time}  1915

  Three examples, Mr. Speaker, of a Federal Government that is simply 
too big and out of control and wasting billions of hard-earned tax 
dollars each and every day.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, one other concern I have does not deal with 
Federal Government wasteful spending, but is it possible that many 
people are spending money in a harmful way on Ritalin.
  I mentioned once before on this floor that a retired high-level Drug 
Enforcement Agency official wrote in the Knoxville News-Sentinel last 
year that Ritalin is prescribed six times as much in the United States 
as in any other industrialized nation. He said that Ritalin has the 
same properties, basically, as some of the most addictive drugs there 
are.
  Now I read in Time Magazine that production of Ritalin has increased 
sevenfold in the past 8 years and that 90 percent of it is consumed in 
the United States. Time Magazine said, ``the growing availability of 
the drug raises the fear of the abuse: more teenagers try Ritalin by 
grinding it up and snorting it for $5 a pill than get it by 
prescription.''
  Also, I read in Insight magazine that almost all these teenage school 
shooters in recent years have been boys who were on at the time or had 
recently been on Ritalin or some similar mind-altering drug.
  Now, I believe there are some people for whom Ritalin has been good. 
But I also read that it is almost always given to boys who have both 
parents working full time.
  I am simply asking if it is a good thing to give such a strong drug 
to so many, or is it simply a way for a big drug company to make huge 
profits. Why 90 percent in the United States? Why do we have at least 
six times as much of this prescribed in the U.S. as any other 
industrialized nation?
  I hope, Mr. Speaker, that parents, teachers, doctors and everyone 
else will not be so eager to turn to Ritalin, which is really a 
potentially dangerous addictive drug and will use it only as an 
absolute last resort.

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