Supporting A New Direction For America

SUPPORTING A NEW DIRECTION FOR AMERICA -- (House of Representatives - September 19, 2006)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Bishop) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. BISHOP of New York. Mr. Speaker, let me start by thanking the gentleman from Alabama for organizing this series of 5-minute statements and for his leadership on this issue.

Two weeks short of the end of the fiscal year of 2006 and with no budget in place for fiscal 2007, I commend my distinguished Democratic colleagues on the Budget Committee for taking this time to call America's attention to the fiscal challenges resulting from the Republicans' misguided policies and the wrong choices they have made for our economy. Misplaced spending priorities and bad decisions have consequences. They are leading us further down the path to fiscal ruin and expanding the wedge between middle-class families and the superwealthy.

I am proud to join my colleagues to highlight the hypocrisy of the overriding Republican economic philosophy that extending dividends, capital gains and other tax cuts for millionaires and corporations create a rising tide that lifts all boats.

Five years after the President's $1.5 trillion tax cut, our national debt now approaches $10 trillion. If our tax cuts performed as promised by those across the aisle, an exploding economy would have wiped out this debt.

We have already proven that more needs to be done than just hope that sooner or later tax cuts will reach Americans who need help the most. But those who do need help must get in line and hope that the benefits of tax cuts for millionaires and corporations will ultimately trickle down to them.

Perhaps the expanding gulf between the haves and the almost-haves is best illustrated by the fact that wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of gross domestic product since the government began keeping records on that in 1947, while corporate profits continue to break all-time records. Meanwhile, the buying power of the minimum wage has sunk to its lowest level in 50 years.

What is missing are policies that ensure that the benefits of higher corporate earnings, productivity and globalization are widely shared, such as real government support for higher education, a progressive Tax Code and affordable health care.

When choices are made at the expense of our safety net, choices that benefit the top 1 percent who will never struggle to pay a mortgage, never struggle to keep up with gas prices, never struggle to put their children through school, it is clear that a new direction for our economy is long overdue.

How can the Republicans argue that this economy is bound in the right direction when our Nation is saddled with record-breaking deficits over 4 consecutive years, combined with deep and painful cuts to hospitals, to schools, and to security? At least the Republicans' budget outlook since 2001 has been consistent. Americans could bank on the American budgets to slash funding for proven homeland security programs, veterans benefits, education and health care priorities, all the while cutting taxes for millionaires who need the break the least.

As real-life indicators of poor Federal spending choices, such as stagnant wages, soaring crime rates and rising health care premiums and drug prices begin to take their toll on Americans, it is our responsibility to react. Instead, inaction reigns under the direction of the current leadership.

In some cases, this inaction has yielded to half-hearted solutions, such as an energy bill that does more for oil and gas companies than lower gas prices, a Medicare bill that does more for drug companies and HMOs than make life-saving drugs affordable, a pension bill that takes it easy on corporate boards while ignoring the decline of traditional defined benefit plans.

Eleven days away from the start of the fiscal year, the record of this Republican Congress on the economy shows that we have not completed a budget or a single appropriations bill.

Fiscal irresponsibility has reached unprecedented new lows, depending on how you look at it. The debt limit has been raised for the fifth time in as many years to almost $10 trillion.

Perhaps we shouldn't be worried. After all, the President's budget director said last month that $200 billion annual deficits are sustainable indefinitely. Apparently normal budget rules don't apply to this administration.

But they do apply to a middle-class family of four living on Long Island whose monthly cost-of-living expenses, due mostly to rising gas prices and health care costs, are rapidly exceeding wage increases. Perhaps their creditors and collection agents will understand that outstanding debts owed by families sinking deeper into red ink are sustainable indefinitely.

We can fix this mess. We have the blueprint; a new direction for America. And we only need to look to past and proven methods, like the pay-as-you-go budget rules that were enforced in the previous administration and produced surpluses that helped us start buying down our national debt.

Indeed, we Democrats resolve to restore what should be the goals of our Federal budget, to reflect the priority of our Nation, to build a strong economy, and to set policies that reflect the values and priorities of the mainstream of Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working with all of my colleagues who recognize that it is long past time to reverse course on this economy and support a new direction for America.

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