Christopher Shays: “I think of what we have tried so hard to do, of getting our country's financial house in order and balancing the Federal…”

“I think of what we have tried so hard to do, of getting our country's financial house in order and balancing the Federal budget and saving our trust funds for not just future generations but for present generations, and moving from a caretaking society to a caring society. Yet they pale in comparison to the fact that many of the people around the world live in abject poverty. We have a population in this world of about 5.2 billion and it is climbing. I think of some societies, whose economies grow, but their population growth outstrips their economic growth and they become poorer and poorer and poorer. For the life of me, I do not know why this great country, the United States of America, would not want to help those countries become more prosperous, and I would like to understand why we would not want them to help control their population growth. This amendment does this. I just urge, with all that I could urge my colleagues to recognize that this is not the United States of America.”