Providing for Consideration of H.R. 4297, Tax Relief Extension Reconciliation Act of 2005

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 4297, TAX RELIEF EXTENSION RECONCILIATION ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - December 08, 2005)

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Mr. BECERRA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the Members of this body to support the Rangel substitute.

If we recall the words of a famous President this country had, a man of heroic proportions, Harry Truman, he said, ``The buck stops here.'' And, unfortunately, we are forgetting the words of Harry Truman because today it seems like the mantra of the leadership in this House of Representatives is the buck stops with your children or perhaps your grandchildren, because we are in a portion of our Nation's history where we have run up national deficits bigger than we have ever seen in our life. We run up deficits in 1 year that it would have taken 200 years of Presidents to run up in the history of this Nation.

Mr. Speaker, in a time of disasters, Rita, Katrina, on and on; in a time of massive deficits; and in a time of war, it is irresponsible to run up the Nation's debt. It is irresponsible to then give money to run up this debt and give it to the wealthiest Americans in this Nation. Mr. Speaker, it is irresponsible to put debt on top of massive debt when we know at the end of the horizon there is still more debt that will come in the years to come: $27,000 is what each and every man, woman, and child in this country owes as a result of our Nation's debt.

It is irresponsible, Mr. Speaker, to take Social Security surplus money, which the President said back in 2001 he could protect and never touch as he moved forward with these tax cuts. It is irresponsible, Mr. Speaker, to take those Social Security surpluses and then contribute them to the wealthiest Americans. In essence, we are gifting the Social Security surplus moneys contributed by working Americans; we are gifting that to the wealthiest Americans in this country through these tax cuts.

Mr. Speaker, it is irresponsible to move forward with these tax cuts at the same time that we are telling American families, mostly middle class that rely on student loans so they can send their young men and women to college, their young daughters and sons are going to have to pay $5,000 more a year in their student loans so we can take care of the 1 percent wealthiest Americans in this Nation in these bills. It is irresponsible, Mr. Speaker, to move forward in that way.

It is irresponsible then to further say we still need to make more cuts and we need to go into the foster care program and take $600 million out of the foster care program which helps us take a child out of an abusive home and move that child into a safe setting. It is irresponsible to take $5 billion out of a child support system that says to deadbeat dads that we are going to take money from them, we need to enforce that, to take $5 billion, make it into cuts, and therefore make it more impossible for us to get those deadbeat dads to help the mothers who are taking care of their sons and daughters in this country. It is irresponsible.

Mr. Speaker, it is responsible when we have a Democratic substitute, as Mr. Rangel has, that says we are going to cut taxes, but in a targeted way, for the middle class, in a responsible way by making sure we pay for it so we do not increase the size of the deficit. And that is what should pass, Mr. Speaker.

President Truman was right. The buck stops here. Let us do it today for ourselves. Let us not leave the debt to our children.

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