Bob Inglis: “the crime bill that we are debating here today is at best in my estimation a little case of schizophrenia and at worst…”

“the crime bill that we are debating here today is at best in my estimation a little case of schizophrenia and at worst the act of a bunch of professional politicians who want to dupe the American people. Let me explain what I mean. What we are doing in this House by unfunded Federal mandates is knocking localities over the back of the head where they cannot see us and then we come along as a false Good Samaritan and hand them a few grant programs. A little bit like handing them an aspirin for the headache they have gotten by us bashing them on the back of the head with the unfunded Federal mandates. A specific example: Greenville County, one of my counties, over the next 6 years will spend $130 million on unfunded Federal mandates. That is enough to hire, according to the good mayor of Greenville, Bill Workman, 600 police officers, or 600 teachers. Part of that $130 million is $75 million for a water filtration plant everyone agrees is not needed. So, Mr. Speaker, we in this House on the one hand knock them over the back of the head, giving them the unfunded Federal mandates and then give them the little grants as an aspirin. We have got to be more creative about how we deal with the crime problem. Repeal unfunded Federal mandates and leave money there to fight crime.”