Date: 1997-10-22
Speaker: BOB SCHAFFER (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Colorado

I thank the gentleman from New Jersey for yielding and commend him for bringing this topic to the floor and allowing us to share a little bit tonight with each other and with the American people about an issue that is so crucial to the future of our country. I am a parent of 4 children. What I bring with me here to Washington is my hopes and dreams and aspirations for my.children and all children just like them throughout the country. Tonight we have focused quite a lot on the drug abuse problem and juveniles and what our hopes a~e for children in America and I want to talk about that and what we can do as conservatives and as Republicans here in this Congress and focus for a moment. if you will. on some of the programs that exist. But again with the underlying thought being. what is it that we can best do to safeguard the future for our children in a positive and constructive way? Mr. Speaker. government programs are nice. In fact some even work. But when it comes to improving the general virtue of American children. few things matter more than fathers. faith and fortune. Sure. there are examples of public programs that have turned around the lives of youngsters. stood in where families were nonexistent or provided support where it was needed most. Virtually every social worker and counselor I have ever met genuinely cares about the youth they serve and are dedicated to straightening out juvenile lives. However. after 10 years in public service as a Colorado State Senator and a United States Congressman. I have come to the frank conclusion that too many government programs aimed at helping wayward youths fall far short of achieving their noble goals. The anecdotal stories of adolescents rescued from their troubled settings are regarded by grant writers and politicians to be all that is necessary to justify heftier appropriations from public coffers. Yet what public officials frequently fail to consider are the untold millions of young Americans robbed of economic opportunity by the mammoth bureaucracies inevitably created by an expanding welfare state. Always I ask how much a juvenile program spends per successful case. The calculation more often than not is dismaying. More vexing is the frequency of the worn retort. "But. Congressman. if it helps only one child. isnt that worth it?" When will we ever wake up and realize that our government spends too much on a welfare state that hurts children by making bureaucrats the gatekeepers of prosperity? The national debt has soared as a direct result of unbridled spending jeopardizing not only present income. but the future incomes of many generations. A child born today owes $20.000 as his share of the present debt. Over the course of his working life. the interest on that debt will amount to S200.000. For every child in America. this means less money for their education. less money for their insurance. less money for their college education and instead of capital to draw on to build their families and fortunes. heavy taxes to pay off the debt. No new Federal youth program no matter how ingenious can replace the security of these essential items of selfsufficiency. With such tall odds is it any wonder that todays youngsters feel disconnected from society. lose hope. experience great anxiety. and rebel against the rest of us? Worse yet. the common family feels powerless to offer answers. In 1950 the median family of 4 paid just 3 percent of its income to the Federal Government in taxes. Today that figure has risen to 24 percent. When State and local taxes are thrown in. the typical family of 4 now pays 40 percent of its income in taxes to the government. The results of this disastrous policy are only too apparent. Even as its punitive tax policy discourages child rearing by traditional middle class families. the Federal Government continues to subsidize- illegitimacy and broken homes. By placing crippling financial burdens on twoparent families. ourgovernment is essentially engineering social collapse. One need only consider the current juvenile crime statistics. Teenagers account for the largest portion of all violent crime in America. In 1995. those under the age of 18 were responsible for almost 2 million violent crimes. more than onefifth of all violent crime. It is reasonable to ask. where are their parents? While marriage and the stable twoparent family remain the most essential and central social unit in America. outrageous rates of divorce and outofwedlock births are destroying this crucial institution and weakening the development of the next generation. More and more children must grow up with little guidance from a parent who loves them. Youth violence is dominated by boys. More murder and robbery is committed by 18yearold males than any other group. Research tells us the likelihood that a young male will engage in criminal activity doubles if he is raised without a father and triples if he lives in a neighborhood with high concentrations of singleparent families. 72 percent of adolescent murderers grew up without fathers and 60 percent of Americas rapists grew up in homes without fathers. On the other hand. children living with both biological parents are up to 4 times less likely than other children to have been expelled or suspended from school. The tax burden on families with children has raised the cost of having children and forced many couples to endure a tradeoff between time at home and time spent at work earning money to support the family. The tax system no longer helps families raising young children. Rather than defend the family and encourage marriage. the Tax Code does just the opposite. That is primarily due to the erosion of the personal exemption by inflation and steep increases in payroll taxes. Simply put. children need fathers. They need parents at home. They need an America offering economic promise. which strengthens the lot of parents and a society providing hope for economic participation. particularly at a young age. But economics is not the only place profamily leaders should look for solutions. Americas moral de.cline is more often cited by experts as the fundamental cause of family instability. More than 4 out of 5 Americans. that is 83 -percent. when polled. say they are deeply concerned about our moral and religious wellbeing as a Nation. They know we will never effectively reach out to Americas youth by avoiding the essential challenge. the lack of spiritual life in society. As elected representatives. all political leaders ought to be able to discuss the need for spiritual renewal. And we should not be ridiculed and castigated for discussing.the spiritual life of our society. Clearly our moral problems are too great to remain silent. Fortunately. where matters of faith are concerned. things are frankly not as bad as the media would have us believe. The fact that the majority of adults in this country believe there is a moral crisis in America is pressing policymakers to the conclusion that there are definite rights and wrongs when it comes to immorality. On increasing occasions. politicians are hearing from constituents their belief in the values of faith. family. community. responsibility. accountability. and they desperately want others. particularly their elected representatives. to believe in them. too. For Americas youth. inclusion in a pious society is perhaps the greatest hope. It is clearly here where we can do the most to stem juvenile violence. A recent survey found that 93 percent of the American people believe in God. Historian Will Durant once concluded that the soul of the Nation Is its religion. By that standard the American people are returning to the divine in record numbers. It would be the height of abuse if children were denied the chance to know the God who made them and the glorious truth of His presence among us today. On this point it becomes apparent that despite the best intentions of the Federal Government. this government is unable to fully embrace wayward youths in the wholesome custom that American people deep down know is needed. The notion of it takes a village is an errant message for Americans precisely because in America the village is too big and too impersonal to really care. Public institutions and bureaucracies cannot love. They possess no resources or emotion of their own to constitute true charity. and they are incapable of instilling the faith upon which our forefathers built a great nation. The only thing bureaucracies do well is spend other peoples money. and they do it with reckless abandon on the chance that a program or two will actually hit its mark. That chance is far too great when a childs future stands in the balance. Sure government should legitimately continue to maintain a minimal safety net to save children from poverty. and protect their physical health. etc. But if America is serious about reserving moral decay and social disintegration for the sake of juvenile behavior we need to find ways to allow private. and faithbased charities to lead the way. for only they are unrestrained in conveying family values and moral precepts in godly terms that children need and understand. Moral absolutes are good but rarely exist in govemment settings. Americas youth deserve a country that believes the Right to pursue Happiness is for real. that this right is unalienable. endowed by God and secured for every child. They deserve an America where government rewards honest hard work and respects the authority of families. where they are not unjustly taxed and where jobs are not regulated away. For juveniles to behave like Americans. they must be allowed to embrace the American Dream. They must be treated like real Americans and given the moral backing to thrive in a free society full of opportunity.