DeLay Statement on Military Draft

o: National Desk

Contact: Stuart Roy or Jonathan Grella, 202-225-4000, both of the Office of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) today made the following remarks on the Democrat proposal for a military draft:

"Sometimes -- not always, but sometimes -- a bill comes to the floor of this House after a long, deliberate examination of the facts surrounding a difficult issue with compelling arguments on both sides, and we can all come together and find common ground.

"Sometimes, a bill is the result of hard-nosed political wrangling, and a party-line vote pushes a controversial measure over the finish line. And sometimes - on rare occasions like today - a bill is considered on the floor of the House as a practical exercise ... to expose a fraud.

"For months now, the American people have been subjected to -- and had their intelligence insulted by -- a manipulative, dishonest, and willful campaign of misinformation. This campaign, which started as a whisper but has since been given voice by the leading Democrats in the country today, asserts without any evidence whatsoever that there is a secret Republican plan to reinstitute the military draft.

"This campaign is a baseless and malevolent concoction of the Democrat Party, and everyone in this chamber knows it. It has one purpose -- to spread fear. To spread fear among an unsuspecting public, to undermine the war on terror, to undermine our troops, to undermine our cause, and most of all, to undermine our commander-in-chief ... in an election year.

"It is a lie. And to prove it, all we had to do was to look in the Congressional Record. And lo and behold, there it was. A plan, not secret, but public. Not hidden by Republicans, but openly touted by Democrats. H.R. 163 -- before us today -- is not the product of a Pentagon cabal, but is sponsored by six of the most liberal and vociferous critics of the war on terror.

"The vote on this bill won't be close, and it won't be party- line. Instead, it will be an opportunity for the American people to see who takes the national security of the United States seriously, who respects our armed forces, who wants to win the war on terror, and who just wants to win the next election.

"This bill is a fraud, and so is the pernicious campaign of deception that has brought it to the floor today. I urge all my colleagues to vote no, and expose to the light of truth the craven, partisan whisper campaign now poisoning the national debate."