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Oh, mhm. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. Mhm two. Mm hmm. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Hello. I'm Senator Lawton Child's, and I want to welcome you to the Lawton Child's update during today's program. We're going to check in on the status of the federal budget. A lot has happened since our last program, and I want to bring you up to date.

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And we're also going to look at two stories as different as any you can imagine. In fact, once about freedom and the others about slavery, enslavement to crack cocaine. This year we celebrate the 2/100 anniversary of the Constitution. The document Gladstone called the most wonderful work ever struck off by the brain and purpose of man.

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We look back at the period in which the Constitution was written and see. It finally came to its place of honor in the National Archives. The last time we were together, the Senate Budget Committee was just winding up its work on the budget for the coming year.

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The next step in the process was debate on the budget by the full Senate. Well, we had the debate, and now the Senate has a budget. The plan I proposed was approved, 56 to 42. Whenever the Senate debates, the budget attracts a lot of heated opinion.

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A lot of issues come up, and sometimes it's easy to lose sight of what the budget fight is all about. What we're really trying to do this year is to cut down on the borrowing by the end of this decade, will have nearly tripled the national debt that it took 200 years to create.

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It will be almost $3 trillion by 1989. The Senate understood clearly that the more we cut down the federal deficit, the less money will have to borrow. So those are the key notions in the budget the Senate approved. The House approved a budget with a number of similarities, but the plans have to be identical before they get the final seal of approval.

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So we began a conference with the House of Representatives as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. It was my turn to head the conference. Last year's conference chairman, Congressman Bill Gray of Philadelphia, turned over to the gavel to me with some words of advice. I am optimistic we can do this, thanks to the firing work of my Senate counterpart, Senator Charles, and his budget committee, Senator Charles, You deserve the highest praise for fashioning a budget resolution that has met the Senate's priorities and that comes very close to ours within the framework of a trillion dollars budget.

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The similarities are much greater than the differences. I look forward to a quick and successful conference. Both houses of Congress now have acted very responsibly and passing budget resolutions with more real permanent deficit reduction than proposed by the administration. Most conferences aren't easy, but I express the hope in my opening remarks that we could get on with the work in the spirit of cooperation.

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The budget approved by the House and the one approved by the Senate have some differences. We'll talk about those during the course of the conference, but both budgets are within the range of each other, and both sharply cut our national borrowing needs. And with goodwill and hard work, I think we ought to be able to put together a good, solid agreement.

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This is a not, however, just a meeting of the House and the Senate. It's a meeting of, uh, Republicans and Democrats, so I certainly want to extend the same warm welcome to our our Republican friends. In some ways, they are well rested and a fresh and by choice.

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They didn't get into the game during the first half, but there's still some time left on the clock, and I, uh I'm hoping that they are suited up now and, uh, and that they will be ready to play. My remarks were just actually a way of renewing the request for more Republican involvement in the budget process.

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Even the former chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Pete Domenici of New Mexico, conceded that they had not been very active. But the fact is, I began to send some movement towards practical answers to our problems and more bipartisan involvement in the process. While the conference was in progress, I got an unexpected call from the president's top budget assistant, Jim Miller, the head of the Office of Management and Budget.

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He wanted to tell me the White House was ready to talk about streamlining the budget process and making it stronger. That's something that the White House has talked about all year long. But what Mr Miller didn't talk about was the actual issues involved in the effort to cut the deficit.

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How much extra revenue is necessary, how much domestic spending has to be cut and where we can restrain military spending. But I got the message the White House is willing to get involved, and I think that makes a tremendous difference. And our next program, We'll find out what involvement means to this year's budget.

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Not many things live to be 200 years old, and those that do are rarely in better shape than they were at the beginning. The United States Constitution qualifies on every count. It's two centuries old, it's a living thing and it's far stronger now than it was in 17 87.

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If the odds are against anything surviving that long, they were just as long against the birth of the Constitution in the first place. It took a lot of courage to declare our independence from England in 17 76 but the toughest job was still to come. England wanted to keep us as a colony.

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We had to fight for our freedom and to fight effectively we had to stand together. So the separate states formed a government under the articles of confederation. It really didn't do the job. It could only be revised by the unanimous agreement of all the states. The document itself described the so called government merely as a firm league of friendship.

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Not exactly the words of eternal union. Although we already called ourselves the United States, we still weren't a nation. During the Revolutionary War, for example, George Washington tried to convince some New Jersey troops to swear allegiance to the United States. They wouldn't do it. They said.

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New Jersey is our country. Those words show just how much the state's really believed in independence, their own. And the fact that these things were said to George Washington was even more remarkable. Washington was the most revered, respected and honored man on this side of the Atlantic.

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So when the States decided to hold a convention to sort out the problems they were having under the articles of Confederation, Washington was at the head of the invitation list. He didn't want to go. He agreed that changes were needed. He just wasn't sure that they could be made.

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He was finally persuaded to attend and was even chosen president of the convention. But he only spoke once. It was his presence rather than his words, that helped create a new form of government. Benjamin Franklin was at the convention and, although in frail health, his diplomatic skills helped keep feuding delegates together.

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Thomas Jefferson wasn't there. Neither was John Adams nor Patrick Henry. But among the 55 men who were at the convention, the driving force was James Madison called The Master Builder of the Constitution, James Wilson of Pennsylvania, once described as having a mind like a blaze of light.

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I believe the only way to give the Constitution a strong foundation was to make sure the foundation with the people themselves. Governor Morris, the brilliant handicapped Pennsylvanian, played the major role in drafting the final document. And, of course, Alexander Hamilton proved to be a champion of the Constitution.

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He was an outspoken advocate for ratification and wrote two thirds of the Federalist Papers, the most forceful defense of the new national charter. But what about the Constitution today? When it was written, we had just four million people. Now we have 240 million, and all of us pay our respects this year to the most famous Charter of Democracy in the World.

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This is Constitution Gardens in Washington, D. C. It's a peaceful part, and in its own way, it's a metaphor for the changes in the country. Throughout the life of the Constitution 200 years ago, this land was a tidal marsh of the Potomac River. As the commerce of the nation grew, the land was neighbor to a canal that ran to the base of Capitol Hill during World War One.

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This was also the site of the ammunitions building, and in the 19 forties, American air strategy for World War Two was planned in the same building after the structure was torn down. This is where they put the earth excavated for the Library of Congress and eggs, named, incidentally, after the key force behind the Constitution, James Madison.

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For a short time in 1968 the same area was the home of Resurrection City, a campsite for civil rights advocate, and later the land was the location for the National Folk Life Festival changes. So many changes connected with this one piece of land, commerce, national defence, civil rights, accommodating all matter of diversity, just like the Constitution itself to look at the document is to see four pages of simple parchment written with common ink of the 18th century.

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Simple, common, honest and sturdy. Today, the Constitution has a secure home in the National Archives, sealed in a glass case filled with helium, protected from harm each night in a vault several stories beneath the building. But it wasn't always that way. Like the nation, the Constitution has been around in the country's early days.

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The document moved from with the Congress, from New York to Philadelphia and finally to Washington. During the War of 18 12. It was taken to Leesburg, Virginia, for safekeeping. It was eventually returned to the State Department, where it remained for many years. In 1921 the Library of Congress was given custody of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, the library, and was so glad to get them that he put both documents on mail sacks in the back of his Model T truck, and he drove them back to the library himself.

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It was a far cry from the day in December of 1952 when these documents passed from the Library of Congress to the permanent stewardship of the National Archives. Together with the Bill of Rights, they were picked up by armed forces police and put on mattresses inside an armored personnel carrier.

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The escort to the archives included two light tanks and four soldiers with sub machine guns. The Constitution is a living force, and it has grown. And just as we have as a people, we began our history a little uncertain and split among competing interest. Today with all of our differences, we really are a nation where land of power and the people of compassion, where a country with a constitution unequal anywhere and reflecting the best hopes of freedom, justice and equality in the world I'll be right back.

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Clint Eastwood is a little upset. Seems some misguided individuals out there are abusing our public lands, and I don't like it. And I don't think you do either. Vandalising parks and robbing historic sites are overrunning wild areas. Those are ours and we have to save them.

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As I see it, these clowns can either clean up their act or get out of town, right? Take pride in America Post Office Box 1339 Jessup, Maryland two oh 794 During these programs, I've spoken a number of times about crack cocaine. I've used just about every adjective to tell you how bad it is, but there aren't sufficient words for a tragedy like this.

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So with the sponsorship of several businesses, I put together a video program called Snow Blind. The Florida Department of Education is putting this tape in every middle and high school in our state. The next 10 minutes are rugged, ugly, tragic and, unfortunately, all too true. You're going to hear young drug victims in jails and rehabilitation centers in our state Talk about the cost of drugs.

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Slavery. The message here is very basic crack. Cocaine is suicide in your pocket. It can shatter your life. It can end your life. Join me now if you will. And watching Snow Blind, right? Yeah. The face you show me scares me. So I thought that I could good call your blood.

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But now the lands are clear enough. Mhm knife. Not pretty. Even though I try so hard to make it so She's cold distress. How did I ever Yeah, mhm called yourself. Do wait down. Yeah, Yes, Yeah. More than my who stole My were without a fight.

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Bye, Eyes you tricked me with so and live without you cause yourself. Yeah. Stop crying. Stop. Thanks. Yeah, Crack cocaine. The most dangerous drug in the United States today. I'm Senator Lawton Charles, and I'm not here to preach to you, but I want to introduce you to some folks your age that have been involved with crack and are lucky enough to have lived to tell about it.

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We traveled the state this year talking to young people so that you can hear their experiences firsthand. And the first thing I wondered was, Why did they try crack to fit in, kind of to have your little clique? And either you use drugs or you don't go.

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I just went with the crowd that I was hanging out with. And after the powder, Coke was out that everybody was into buying the crack. The first time I tried it, I was hooked on. I'll never forget that feeling for the rest of my life started.

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I just want to have fun, you know? Then all the fun was gone. It wasn't even. It wasn't even good times anymore. Really? Because I know I never touch that stuff again because it got me here and I don't Like I said, I never had about any kind of record till I got on cocaine.

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And when I got on it, okay. When I rolled downhill the first time I did, it was it was definitely peer pressure because, you know, I didn't want to do it. But like my druggie boyfriend and everything, you know, they're going Well, come on, just try it once.

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You think you can just do it once you think you can just do it twice and that'll be the end of it And you can say, Yeah, I try to crack like everybody else. But when it comes down to the fact of it, once you've done it once, it's going to be an internal battle, always trying to turn it down.

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Most of the young people we spoke with had a story of rapid personal decline. Once they've taken that first hit, most tell a story of severe weight loss. Drastic personality changed and big trouble with the law as a direct result of crack usage. That kind of lost my mind.

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I didn't know my name. Who I was where I was at anybody around me. I was I was constantly on the run. I wasn't living at home anymore. Of my mom, Um, my friends changed. I stopped going to school and the law was after me because I was run away.

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I had contempt of court charges on me. It led to breaking into houses and breaking and stealing cars, stealing stereos out of cars. I don't know. I just started doing a lot of base rock with my friends and things like that. And I got to the point where, you know, I didn't have any money and everything, and I don't have my job.

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So I was stealing checks from my mother and I was forging checks, and I ended up having about 22 counts of forgery against me. There was times where I've done so much cocaine that I thought it was really close to death. I remember sitting on my couch, you know, and sticking a gun down my throat.

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He was looking down at the barrel and see him tears run down my drop off, and I couldn't do it. Had a that I love just for my mom. I was in tracks, and, uh, I had a chance to be, you know, one of the state champs in track.

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And, uh, one day I just because of the cocaine, I had a real bad attitude and and in class and the teacher, she kicked me out of the class and told me to go to the office. And cocaine was just telling me Go, you know, leave school, just go.

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And I knew how to track me that day. I knew it and I left anyway, and I just It's like, right then I knew my hopes and my dreams were gone. I blew up everything in just a split second decision. My whole life was down the drain and I wasted.

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I wasted all I've gained. I mean, practicing every day ever since. Like the seventh grade going there, lifting weights and running and everything. And I blew it away just in a split second decision because of some drug and stole my life and stole everything. I would get high, and then I'd go and look at myself in the mirror and not not even recognize myself.

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I was basically insane. I was insane. I tried to kill myself a couple of times the start of a scar on my wrist and I tried to split it. I didn't have any money, you know, I didn't have anything to buy the drugs with. And I had set up a deal with this with this with this guy that was a known dealer.

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And I told him to meet me and have the drugs, and I remember getting out of my car and just walking towards him, remember? I didn't have any money, you know, my whole my whole thought was just I was I was gonna shoot this guy if I had to.

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You know, if if it comes to that, I'll go ahead and do it as long as I get my cocaine every time I'd get in trouble. Or like when I got arrested the next day, I went out and did drugs, so I never had a chance to sit down and think about my God.

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What am I doing to myself? I've seen my friends die from co. And I've seen people. Friends of mine gets shot and killed, and I've seen it all, and I almost thought it would never happen. to me, and here I am. It just takes you over.

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And I would be doing a hit crying at the same time because I didn't want to do it. And it just it does things to your head and it just it'll leave you like this Eventually, you know, it'll bring you to your knees, and it's just no good.

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When I went into the hospital, I weighed £90 and I was John. I was real sick, and I had gone into a coma and went blind for three days, and I lost, like, six months that I can't really piece together. I don't know what happened, but I remember waking up in the psychiatric hospital.

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I pray and pray and pray if I just get one more chance. It's a sad story. Crack is a killer. The people we've seen are the lucky ones. Many have died from crack. There's no treatment for crack overdose. Death comes in the form of heart failure.

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When the user overdoses, it's not a pretty sight to watch someone die from crack. The thing is, you never know when it's going to happen. In addition to facing the fiscal, financial and mental problems caused by crack addiction. Users are going to be faced now with the new laws were introducing to make it even tougher.

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Should you get caught with crack cocaine? Okay, you really don't know what you're getting into and you won't hear what anybody says until something happens to you. The only thing I can say is never start. I know it's hard to to to to grasp, because I heard a lot of this stuff when I was young.

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And if you do start, you need to to be able to stop and look at yourself and see what it's doing to your life before you keep on going. Otherwise, you'll end up dead or in a ST asylum or in a place like this. Hopefully, you know, to help your problem.

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I've never seen anybody just crack. Just try crack just once, because once they do it once, it's like, you know, it's It's down from there crack cocaine. It will ruin your life if it doesn't kill you first. But I can't make that decision not to use crack for you.

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That's a choice that you have to make for yourself. Are you going to live the lie I can feel I can't escape this Centene ears no stories comes to protect And here comes that same Oh, yeah, yeah Never Rogers So mhm Want to drop me? Mm on.

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Yeah. How can Yeah, you guys? Yes. When we return, we look at some of the letters that you've sent me. That's it. I'm history. End of the road. You can't quit, Vince. No crash dummy takes out a utility pole like you do, Larry. For years of improving how safety belts save lives.

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But nobody's listening. Sure they are. Yeah. That's why thousands die in car accidents every year. I feel like I'm banging my head against the wall. Come on, Vince. Tomorrow's the big day. Two compacts get on high speed. Could save a life. I'll be there. Yeah, you could learn a lot from a dummy.

00:24:31.180 - 00:24:52.550

Buckle your safety belt. Many of you write me. In fact, about 10,000 letters come to my office each month and I appreciate each one. I'd like to share a couple of those letters with you. A writer from Pensacola asked, Dear Senator child's, We've been hearing so much about the problems with our bugged embassy in Moscow.

00:24:53.340 - 00:25:12.790

Where is it going to end? And what are we doing about the problem? Well, George Shultz, the secretary of state, has said the building is honeycombed with bugs, and from what I've learned, I believe the American Embassy in Moscow should be torn down. The entire building complex has become a giant transmitter.

00:25:12.890 - 00:25:31.040

It's a tuning fork, and we could never have faith that all the bugs have been removed. The whole record of construction of the embassy has been one fiasco after another. The project designs have been changed at least 100 and 30 times. Work continued at the building for years after security problems have been found.

00:25:31.060 - 00:26:03.060

And as bad as the situation is, I'm afraid it's not limited to the building in Moscow. In the Central American country of Belize, a new embassies plan that will cost more than $33 million that mountain is 1/5 of the national product of the whole country. In India, the State Department wanted to build four houses for about a million dollars four years later and 35 design changes, and after we shelled out more than a million and a half dollars the Indian contractor walked off the job, leaving us with an uncompleted project.

00:26:03.740 - 00:26:22.770

Obviously, we need secure buildings for our embassies overseas, but I have strong doubts that the State Department is the agency to get the job done. Those people are diplomats, not engineers. Right now, I'm working on a bill that would give the Army Corps of Engineers the responsibility for managing the construction of our embassies abroad.

00:26:23.540 - 00:26:42.560

In effect, the State Department would be the customer for the embassy's built by the core. I think we can depend on the core, and we certainly can't afford any disasters like Cairo, Moscow. Over the past years, I've had the General Accounting Office reviewing how and why things went haywire in these construction projects.

00:26:43.440 - 00:27:05.780

Next month, I hope to hold hearings to review the present status of the embassy construction worldwide. The whole episode is an embarrassment at best and certainly a security threat. At worst, this letter comes from Miami. Dear Senator Child's. My mother paid almost $1000 last year for so called Medigap insurance.

00:27:06.440 - 00:27:21.770

I wonder if the insurance is worth the premium. Well, there's no way I can answer without seeing the policy, but I will tell you that the premium seems high. Medigap insurance is meant to pay that portion of the doctor and hospital bills which Medicare doesn't cover.

00:27:22.460 - 00:27:43.400

I investigated the sale of Medigap insurance several years ago and turned up case after case of unscrupulous salesman preying on the fears of older people. A model federal statute put a stop to some of the shady dealings, but they still persist in some areas. Fortunately, in Florida, we have a vigorous insurance commissioner, and I urge you to contact his office.

00:27:43.400 - 00:28:02.050

If you have any questions about a policy, the Senate has just ordered a new investigation of Medigap insurance. And I'll share the results with you just as soon as soon as the Federal Trade Commission completes its probe. Well, that's our program. I hope you'll join us again next time for the Lawton Child's update.

00:28:06.240 - 00:29:42.860

Mhm! Mhm, Mhm. Mhm. Okay, Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Do you do? Mhm. Mhm two. Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mhm. The Lawton child's update takes a look at the 2/100 anniversary of the United States Constitution and the men who worked so hard to make it lasting and workable documents We'll also examine a new way of teaching our Children about the hazards of crack cocaine.

00:29:43.440 - 00:30:12.060

I'm Senator Lord Charles, and I hope you'll join us from the 2/100 anniversary of the United States Constitution to a new video for schoolchildren on crack cocaine. The law and showers update is there. I'm Senator Lawton Child's. I hope you'll join us.