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1999 Ron Paul Chapter 89

Selective Service System

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5 August 1999

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.

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