Providing for Consideration of H. Con. Res. 34, Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2012

Floor Speech

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Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from South Carolina (Mr. Scott) for yielding me the 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, we all recognize the urgent need to cut the Nation's deficit. We need to have serious discussions and make tough decisions about how we prevent a fiscal crisis in our country, and certainly we are beginning those discussions.

But, sadly, today--and I must emphasize this--sadly, today this bill will end Medicare and cost shift to seniors $6,000 more a year. And why are they doing that? They get to pay for more tax breaks for Big Oil and millionaires, who are untouched in this country. That really is strange deficit reduction to me.

Frankly, if I had my druthers, I would start by ending the war in Afghanistan. That war is costing us $8 billion a month, and we're paying to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan while our own infrastructure crumbles and while we feel we cannot afford to spend any of our money on those of us who live here and pay the costs.

Just yesterday, the President presented another way to solve our fiscal crisis, as he laid out a budget that will responsibly reduce the spending and that simplifies the Tax Code, which is so important, so that, as the President said, and this is critical to understand, the taxes you pay are not going to be determined by the accountant you can afford. This is good news for all Americans.

The President's budget puts us on the right track to ending the deficit crisis while investing in the long-term success of our economy and our country. Unfortunately, the thought is far too prevalent in this House that we need not invest in ourselves, that we can just shut down programs and everybody will be happy and singing in the streets. Not likely.

But despite the responsible vision the President presented yesterday, we stand here today debating a reckless Republican budget that will destroy programs like Medicare while extending the tax cuts to corporations and America's rich.

The budget starts with Medicare, eliminating the program that provides secure and affordable health care in old age. And it is eliminated. People who are on Medicare now will be grandfathered in. In the future what they will get will be a voucher with a certain amount of Federal money that goes with it. They are then required to go do the best they can in the private market to meet their health care needs.

As we watch the cost in the private market climb, we would have to ask ourselves, Would this government help out, as Medicare would, by raising the money that the government puts in to replace it? No, it wouldn't. So under this plan a senior in the year 2021, and I hope there are a lot of them in this House who will follow me on this, will pay $6,000 more for the private insurance than they would have under Medicare. Now, if your insurance costs more than that, you had better find a way to pay your creditors because you're going to be on your own.

Today's budget bill also threatens the future of Social Security. It includes a trigger mechanism that would allow Social Security cuts to be rushed through the Congress at a future date. This trigger is an abuse of the legislative process and puts Social Security on the chopping block for future cuts.

Furthermore, in an act that defies all logic, this bill cripples the watch dogs that we created just last year to police the big banks who created the financial crisis. Why in the world would we want to do that?

In addition to Medicare and Social Security, it cuts 70 percent of our investments in clean energy. It cuts 25 percent of our education funding. It cuts out 30 percent of our transportation funding, including significantly less money for a high-speed rail network designed to free us from foreign oil.

By stopping investments in key competitive areas, our Nation is abandoning jobs and future economic opportunities that come with clean energy, with a new transportation network, and the invaluable work of educating our children. This is the burden 90 percent of Americans are asked to share.

Meanwhile, the Republican budget would make permanent the Bush-era tax cuts that further cut taxes for corporations and America's richest individuals, including the oil companies. Do they need a Federal subsidy? I think not. Had the Bush tax cuts been allowed to expire in December, we would almost be able to cut our deficit in half within a few months from now.

The Republican majority apparently believes that the ones who have the most should sacrifice the least. Some have claimed tax cuts create jobs. We hear that a lot around here. But analysis by respected experts, such as Pulitzer Prize winner and former New York Times tax expert David Clay Johnston, have shown that tax cuts do nothing to spur the economy and create jobs; they simply pad the wallets of the wealthiest among us in times of a national need.

As we shape a budget for 2012, we must craft legislation that truly shares the entire Nation's sacrifice, not a budget that ends Medicare while handing more tax giveaways to those who need it the least and in many cases are asking not to be given it.

Accordingly, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the rule and the underlying resolution.

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