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Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. It passed the House of Representatives, and I am not sure what the vote was. My colleague and friend from Florida didn't draft it or write it, but he is offering it.

I took a look at it. It is hard to disagree.

Do I think that Vladimir Lenin or Joseph Stalin were bad people? You bet.

Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Pol Pot, Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un, Daniel Ortega, Hugo Chavez, Nicolas Maduro? Sure, no questions asked.

Do I think the Bolshevik Revolution was a good idea? I wasn't around at the time, but from what I have read, it was not.

What do I think about the Great Leap Forward in China, another example of socialism?

The list goes on and on. It lists the crimes against humanity which occurred by socialist regimes, and they should be listed and noted in this resolution.

Then it goes on to explain, in terms of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, just what they mean by socialism in this resolution. And that is where you lose me, because when it is all said and done, I am a little worried.

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt created Social Security, do you know what they called it? Socialism. When Lyndon Baines Johnson created Medicare for millions of Americans, do you know what they called it? Socialized medicine.

So in your conclusion, where you say Congress denounces socialism in all its forms and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States, does that include Social Security? Does that include Medicare? I would think those programs might be important in your State. They sure are in mine.

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