Ms. PRYCE of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I
am pleased to yield 3 minutes to my
distinguished colleague, the gentleman
from Texas (Mr. Paul).
(Mr. PAUL asked and was given permission
to revise and extend his remarks.)
1999 Ron Paul 89:1 Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the
gentlewoman for yielding time to me.
1999 Ron Paul 89:2 Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my
support for this rule. It is a fair rule.
There is plenty of room for debate and
room for amendment.
1999 Ron Paul 89:3 I would like to congratulate the
Committee on Appropriations for doing
something very important in this bill
by deleting all the funding for the Selective
Service System. I think that is
very important.
1999 Ron Paul 89:4 As was described by the gentlewoman
earlier, there will be an attempt early
on. The first amendment that will
come to the floor will be to put that
money back in.
1999 Ron Paul 89:5 I would like my colleagues to consider
very seriously not to do that, because
there is no need for the Selective
Service System. There is only one purpose
for the Selective Service System.
That is to draft young 18-year-olds.
That is unfair.
1999 Ron Paul 89:6 There is no such thing as a fair draft
system. It is always unfair to those
who are less sophisticated, who either
avoid the draft or are able to get into
the National Guard, or as it was in the
Civil War, pay to get their way out.
1999 Ron Paul 89:7 The draft is a 20th century phenomenon,
and I am delighted to see and
very pleased that the Committee on
Appropriations saw fit to delete this
money because this, to me, is reestablishing
one of the American traditions,
that we do not believe in conscription.
Conscription and drafting is a totalitarian
idea.
1999 Ron Paul 89:8 I would like to remind many of my
conservative colleagues that, if we
brought a bill to this floor where we
would say that we would register all of
our guns in the United States, there
would be a hue and cry about how horrible
it would be. Yet, we casually accept
this program of registering
18-year-old kids to force them to go and
fight the political wars that they are
not interested in. This is a very, very
serious idea and principle of liberty.
1999 Ron Paul 89:9 So when the time comes in September
to vote for this, I beg that my
fellow colleagues will think seriously
about this, the needlessness to spend
$25 million to continue to register
young people to go off to fight needless
wars. They are not even permitted to
drink beer; and, yet, we expect them to
be registered and to use them to fight
the wars that the older generation
starts for political and narrow-minded
reasons.
1999 Ron Paul 89:10 So when the time comes in September,
please consider that there are
ways that one can provide for an army
without conscription. We have had the
reinstitution of registration of the
draft for 20 years. It has been wasted
money. We can save the $25 million. We
should do it. We should not put this
money back in. We do not need the Selective
Service System.
Note:
1999 Ron Paul 89:1
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding time to me.
here, Ron Paul thanks The Honorable Deborah Pryce of Ohio.
