Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2013

Floor Speech

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Mr. DOGGETT. This budget is based on the false belief that if we ask those who have the least in America to take a little less and we ask those who have the most to thicken their cushion just a little bit, that everybody will be a winner and America will grow. No matter how many times that mythology fails--most recently with the Bush-Cheney tax cuts that didn't grow the economy effectively but did grow the deficit to record levels. No matter how many times it fails, they insist on having a little more of it.

Our contrasting view on tax policy was demonstrated in the committee consideration of this bill. I suggested that we extend the higher education tax credit that I authored so that a mechanic and a nurse with a young person who's gotten their high school diploma in San Antonio, Texas, can walk over to St. Philip's or San Antonio College and have their tuition, up to $2,500--which will cover tuition and textbooks there--that they get that right off their taxes, a tax cut. They rejected that tax cut because they said it would be better if we gave a tax break to billionaires and those at the top of the economic ladder, and eventually that mechanic and that nurse and that young person would see the benefit. I don't think they do. I think they'd like to be able to choose for themselves with a higher education tax credit opportunity for the future.

And the little brother and the little sister there, or in Lockhart or in San Marcos, that want an opportunity to be prepared for school with Head Start and early education, our budget provides for them. It provides opportunity and hope for them. But Republicans insist that they ought to sacrifice a little bit more.

As for our seniors and our veterans, we suggested for veterans that we wanted to provide more job opportunities.

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Mr. DOGGETT. And as for our seniors, we suggested that getting a certificate to go fish for insurance is no substitute for Medicare.

This is about values, about dignity for those in retirement, and opportunity for our young people.

This Republican budget is not a Path to Prosperity. It's an expressway of retread ideas, an expressway to mediocrity.

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