"It does smack of fascism "

[Charles Brown]

COMMENTS BY CALIFORNIA CONGRESSMAN PETE STARK DURING HOUSE DEBATE ON 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET, FISCAL YEAR 2003 -- (House of 
Representatives - March 20, 2002)


Mr. Chairman, there are some of us who remember this world in the 
1930s, when Hitler suspended the Bundestag to promulgate conservative 
ideology and not let people speak. It is a shame that the Republicans 
in the House, Mr. Chairman, have taken up that same ideology and are 
denying a chance for debate and open discussion of a budget. It does 
smack of fascism; and it is too bad, because the American people will 
recognize that and understand that in a free economy, and in a free 
country that created programs like Social Security and Medicare and 
special education and aid for dependent children and aid for people 
who are unable to care for themselves, for the disabled, that to deny 
them care is obscene.

I think it will be quite clear that, for whatever reason, whether it 
is deficits or anything else, that the overwhelming desire of the 
Republican Party is to destroy programs in the Federal Government, 
except those few intended for the very wealthy.

Most of the colleagues who are screaming about the war never wore a 
uniform other than the Boy Scout uniform. And I would like to 
suggest, as I said before, none of them have worked in free 
enterprise, which they tout so loudly. And yet, because that is where 
the campaign contributions come from, in the hundreds of millions of 
dollars, that is where their allegiance is. They are forsaking the 
seniors who need health care and who need an economic safety net. 
They are forsaking our children by denying them the chance to come 
along and get an education.

I am sure the American public is going to recognize this, and I am 
sure they are going to recognize it when they see wasteful money 
spent on things like Star Wars, which will not work, and programs 
which do nothing except to pay for large defense contractors, who are 
related to former Republican Presidents, and I think they are going 
to see that this is an obscene, corrupt, and undemocratic attempt to 
harm those people who are most fragile in this country only to 
benefit the 1 or 2 percent of the very wealthiest. And I hope my 
colleagues will vote down this budget.

FROM BUZZFLASH.COM
Laura X
National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape
Women's History Library
Berkeley, Ca.
WEB SITE: http://ncmdr.org

--