(Mr. PAUL asked and was given permission
to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
2000 Ron Paul 20:1
Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, the current
budget this year authorizes an expenditure
of $1.789 trillion. We would think
that would be enough. The President
has asked for an additional $4 billion.
After the House leadership thought
about this, they decided to give him $9
billion.
2000 Ron Paul 20:2
Quite frankly, I think there is
enough waste and fraud in the current
budget that we could find the $4 billion
if this expenditure were necessary. If
we ever considered cutting back on
some unconstitutional spending, we
would have plenty of funds to take care
of additional expenditures and have a
lot left over.
2000 Ron Paul 20:3
But we should be very cautious about
what we are doing today by expanding
our involvement in Colombia. We are
now moving into Colombia and spending
a lot of money and expanding our
war in this area. We should not be
spending our money on military adventurism.
We should be taking this
money and spending it to build up our
military defenses. We should be using
this money to pay our military personnel
more money, give them better
housing and better education and better
medical care.
2000 Ron Paul 20:4
What we are doing today, if we pass
this bill, is we are going to move into
an another area of the world where we
have no constitutional interest.