Moran Floor Statement Against H.R. 273

Washington, DC – Congressman Jim Moran, Northern Virginia Democrat, delivered the following remarks on the House floor against H.R. 273, to freeze federal employee pay for 2013. The bill passed the House by a vote of 261-154.

“In 1729 an Irish satirist by the name of Jonathan Swift proposed a novel solution to child hunger and general poverty in Ireland. He recommended that Ireland’s poor pull themselves up by their own boot straps by selling their children as food to the rich. That would nourish the rich, earn the poor some much needed cash, and solve the child hunger problem all at once!

“The proposal was ridiculous, of course, but that was his point.

“Today, the House majority, unfortunately without Mr. Swift’s humor or irony, offers its own Modest Proposal. To ensure our elderly are cared for, let’s cut the pay of those responsible for their health. To make sure our food and drugs are safe, let’s diminish the benefits of those whose job it is to screen for safety and unintended effects. To find a cure for cancer, let’s punish the researcher who toils daily to save millions of Americans from the disease. To care for our veterans, who were sent by this body to fight in foreign lands, let’s make their caretakers find a second job.

“Mr. Speaker, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle may justify their vote today by boasting of freezing their own pay. But that was accomplished in the fiscal cliff legislation.

“The bill before us today will freeze, for the third year in a row, every federal employees’ pay. It’s an effort to denigrate our federal workforce and in the hope that the government becomes unresponsive, inefficient and unworthy of our best and brightest.  

“Mr. Speaker, I urge a no vote on H.R. 273. Enough is enough.”

To watch a video of Rep. Moran’s remarks, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaC5XfFOe2M

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