Political Quotes

On the recordMarch 22, 1994
it is costing the taxpayers of this country billions and billions of dollars. Any time we pick up the papers and we read about the crime in the District of Columbia or any other urban area across the United States, we ask ourselves, ``What can we do about this situation? How are we going to change this?'' This is one of the ways, I would submit, that we can begin to change the deteriorating social conditions within the United States. Yes, building prisons and having tougher laws are part of one approach that we need to have, I stipulate to that, but we will never build enough prisons or have laws Draconian enough that in and of themselves they are going to stem this problem. We need to start right at the beginning, on the other end of things, before we spend money to build those expensive prisons and deal with people, equip our young people to live better lives, to avoid the pitfalls of promiscuous sexual activity, and the results from that will be much fewer problems that we are going to have to deal with later on as a society, when all we know to do ultimately is to lock people up and keep them locked up. That is really not a very good solution. It may be part of the solution, because we have to have some immediate answer, but the long-term answer is to deal with this side of the equation. Madam Chairman, this chart shows that abstinence-based sex education works.…
Said by
John Doolittle
Republican · California

Editor's note · Context

Discussing the need for preventive measures to address crime and social issues in the U.S.

Share

More from John Doolittle

Mar 17, 1994

I do not see how this could possibly be viewed as constitutional. It singles out a single group of people and punishes in essence their speech, while allowing others to go unpunished for identical conduct. I hope we defeat the rule.

govinfo.gov
Jun 9, 1994

published reports have confirmed the presence of a large black hole in the universe. A black hole is a force so powerful it sucks up all material around it, not even allowing light to escape. The Rules Committee, under the domination of…

govinfo.gov
Mar 17, 1994

I rise to oppose this rule. It would appear that many Members of this House are unaware that murder, assault, vandalism and trespassing are presently illegal. I bring this up because we have a bill whose advocates insist will provide for…

govinfo.gov
Feb 9, 1994

Absolutely. And historically, as we look at socialized medicine in other countries, price control, government artificial price controls are always a component of it. And it always leads to the next step, which is rationing.

govinfo.gov

Other voices in this conversation