UNIVERSAL NATIONAL SERVICE ACT OF 2003 -- (House of Representatives - October 05, 2004)
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Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill. With the modern technology found in most weapons today, the U.S. military needs a more highly educated force than it needed years ago. Also, the United States does not need the large numbers of soldiers our armed forces required in previous large wars. Our all-volunteer military is working well, and we have raised pay and benefits up to higher levels than most would be making in the private sector.
Secretary Rumsfeld agrees. In recent testimony before the Armed Services Committee in the other body, he noted:
``We've got 295 million people in the United States of America. We need 1.4 million to serve in the active force. We have no trouble attracting and retaining the people we need.''
``We are not having trouble maintaining a force of volunteers. Every single person's a volunteer. We do not need to use compulsion to get people to come in the armed services. We got an ample number of talented, skillful, courageous, dedicated young men and women willing to serve. And it's false.''
Service in our armed forces is one of the most honorable ways anyone can serve this Nation, and our military is attracting very good people. However, in a society that prides itself on individual liberty and personal freedom, public service is not the only way to serve the common good. A free country should never force anyone to work for the government unless there is no other reasonable alternative.
We can teach our children to love and appreciate this country without forcing any young person to serve in the military against his or her will. There are plenty of professions where people honorably serve others, a good many of which are in the private sector.
Farmers serve this Nation well providing food for the people. Bankers serve the Nation well by creating the capital and financing for small businesses to create jobs and hire hard-working people.
Nurses and doctors serve the Nation well by working long hours protecting us from disease and injury.
Farmers, doctors, teachers, business people--these are just a few of the countless people in countless professions who work hard at honest jobs serving others in service to this Nation.
For every person we force into the military against his or her wishes, we are taking away the ability of that individual to fulfill the God-given right to pursue one's own happiness, a right that Thomas Jefferson made the centerpiece of the Declaration of Independence.