Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has said that, over two decades, this very bill will add over $2 trillion to the national debt.

For anyone who hides behind poor kids to justify that $2 trillion in debt, understand that there is no poor child in America who will get a dime out of this bill next year. Their tax credits do not expire now. We have more than another year to resolve that matter.

No, this isn't about poor children. It is about big gifts. Indeed, in the holiday spirit, the biggest bow of all has been put on a special gift for Wall Street. The world's largest financial institutions, you know, the ones that brought America to its economic knees with the debacle over finances and then came forward and got a majority of this Congress--not me--to vote for a taxpayer bailout, well, they are back here again, and they are getting a reward.

They are getting a tax subsidy that is made permanent. It just happens to be a tax subsidy that was removed from our Tax Code originally in a bill that Ronald Reagan signed into law. When it got put back in on a temporary basis, Bill Clinton sought to veto the provision because it was so unjustified.

Christmas, of course, is not cheap. This bill, this gift to Wall Street, costs $78 billion--not paid for--borrowed from the Saudis and from the Chinese to give Wall Street $78 billion, with a ``B.''

How much money is that? Well, about the same amount is included in the bill this will be a part of. It funds all the medical research at the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, all of Head Start across the country, and all of the education for the disabled and disadvantaged that is provided by the Federal Government. All of that combined is $78 billion. But you can be sure that Wall Street is never disabled or disadvantaged in the Capitol.

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Mr. DOGGETT. This $78 billion tax subsidy is called the ``active financing exception.'' My, my, these bankers have been active here. They may have been very naughty to the American people. They may have been very naughty to the American economy. But they have been, oh, so nice to some Members of Congress.

Republicans and some Democratic enablers are helping keep a provision in here that will only lead to shipping jobs overseas. They are borrowing from overseas to put this burden on the American people. This is the kind of provision that causes Americans to be so concerned about their government and a feeling that it has run away from them because these kinds of provisions are running away our debt and denying the support for Make It In America that we need.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the rejection of this package that will do so much harm to our country. General Leave

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