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Senator Byrd
Since only a last name was included in the speech, it is difficult to determine ''which'' Byrd is being referred to. Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) is the more well-known, but at the time of the speech, there was another Byrd in office, Harry Byrd (D-VA). Robert Byrd (1917 - 2010) was a long-running member of Congress from the state of West Virginia, having served in the House of Representatives from 1953 - 1959 and in the Senate from 1959 until his death in 2010. He was imfamous for the discovery that, before running for Congress, he formed a chapter of and recruited for the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan|Klu Klux Klan]. His claim afterwords was that he did it because they were anticommunist. Harry Byrd (1887 - 1965) was a career politician of Virginia, having held office of Governor for 6 years and Senator for 32. He was more conservative fiscally, stating: "I stand for strict economy in governmental affairs ... The State of Virginia is similar to a great business corporation ... and should be conducted with the same efficiency and economy as any private business." == Speech Relevance == From '[[Encroaching Control]]': <BLOCKQUOTE>''Today, with no one using the term socialism to describe encroaching control, we find one out of seven of the workforce on the public payroll. In 15 years, a 50% increase in public employees has been matched by a 170% increase in their payroll. One-fourth of our people now entitled to government-paid medical care, socialized medicine if you please. One-fifth of our industry owned and operated by government. Senator Byrd has estimated that today 40 million American citizens receive some form of direct cash payment from the federal government.''</BLOCKQUOTE> It is impossible to say where or when exactly Senator Byrd made this claim, so it would be very difficult to substantiate the claim. == Source Links == [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Byrd|Robert Byrd] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_F._Byrd|Harry Byrd]
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