Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield to the gentleman from Texas [Mr. PAUL], another Texan, and I do not know necessarily that Texans have a corner on family virtue, but I am happy to yield to my friend.
1997 Ron Paul 14:1
Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding. I am delighted the gentleman has called this special order tonight, and I am pleased I can participate in it.
1997 Ron Paul 14:2
Earlier today we had a vote on the Working Families Flexibility Act. This came out of the committee I had been working on, and I was a strong supporter of this. We did promote this as a family-oriented piece of legislation.
1997 Ron Paul 14:3
And as we all know, this piece of legislation allows more choices for the family in the way they can spend their overtime or their time off. Obviously, this is a benefit to the families. In one way I was a little bit disappointed that we had to go through it, because if we live in a free society it is assumed that you can make these agreements with your employer, but under the circumstances it was not available to many of our families unless we passed this piece of legislation, so I was delighted we were able to do that.
1997 Ron Paul 14:4
During that debate I mentioned that one of my favorite bumper stickers says simply “Legalize Freedom.” And any time we do that in this Congress, I am very pleased.
1997 Ron Paul 14:5
The other thing I would like to suggest, along with our nice title there, “Strong Families for a Better America,” I would like to put a subtitle there and say, “Freedom is Family-Friendly.” I think the more freedom we have, the stronger our families are.
1997 Ron Paul 14:6
We have seen a tremendous effort, sincere efforts, over the past 30 or 40 years with the promotion of the welfare state. It is always done in the name of helping people and helping families, but quite frankly, there is very little evidence to show that the $5 trillion spent on the welfare system has
strengthened our families. As a matter of fact, I think it has done quite the opposite.
1997 Ron Paul 14:7
In the same sense, these many funds were spent to strengthen education, and if we look at our educational system, it has not helped. So if we have an educational system that is not working hardly, are we doing much benefit to our families?
1997 Ron Paul 14:8
So, I think the opposite of the statement, freedom is family friendly, I think big government is not. I do not believe that if power and authority and responsibility gravitates here to Washington that it is beneficial to the family. The more freedom we have, the more local options we have, the more choice we have for our families, I think the better off we are.
1997 Ron Paul 14:9
Obviously, families would have a lot more choices if they had a lot less taxes, so we have emphasized that as well. I think our reducing taxes on families and giving tax credits for children would certainly be a great benefit.
1997 Ron Paul 14:10
I would like to bring up very briefly one subject that is dear to my heart, because it involves families. It is generally believed by many in this country that the women’s movement was the main reason why women went out to work. Quite frankly, I think there are a lot of women who were forced to work in order to take care of their families in the best way they can see fit. And this to me was so often a reflection of inflation because of the cost of living. I believe that eventually we have to address this subject and deal with it to make sure our families have the greatest opportunity possible that we can provide for them. Thank you very much.
Notes:
1997 Ron Paul 14:3
Ron Paul says And as we all know, and Congressional Record omits And. See the C-Span video, at 18:40:33 local time.
Ron Paul says a little bit disappointed and Congressional Record omits bit. See the C-Span video, at 18:40:46 local time.
Ron Paul says And any time, and Congressional Record omits And. See the C-Span video, at 18:41:09 local time.
1997 Ron Paul 14:6
Ron Paul says, helping people and helping families, and Congressional Record omits the second instance of helping. See the C-Span video, at 18:41:37 local time.
1997 Ron Paul 14:7
Ron Paul says, "So if we have and Congressional Record omits So. See the C-Span video, at 18:41:53 local time.
1997 Ron Paul 14:8
Ron Paul says, power, and authority and responsibility and Congressional Record misquotes him as saying power and responsibility and authority. See the C-Span video, at 18:42:08 local time.
1997 Ron Paul 14:10
Ron Paul says, And this, to me, and Congressional Record omits And. See the C-Span video, at 18:42:58 local time.
Congressional Record omits Thank you very much. See the C-Span video, at 18:43:12 local time.
