Cry Uncle

Mrs. BOXER. I know my colleagues are here. I have one point I want to make, and then I am leaving the floor. I think it is an important point. I wonder if my friend can let me know if he agrees. I think America is now learning who benefits from this Bush plan. It is very clear. It is not rhetoric; it is fact. It is a boon to the millionaires and the billionaires, plain and simple. I know people in this very Chamber who have come up and said: This is absurd. We would much rather see a country that invests in its children, invests in its homeland security, and that gives tax breaks to those in the middle. They are fighting to stop this ill-advised plan. You have made the case that it makes no sense. We are talking about deficits as high as the eye can see and people being rewarded who don't need to be helped. It is not going to stimulate this economy. In the long term, it will lead to outrageous deficits.
   
 I ask my friend this question: Isn't it bad enough that this is a plan that won't do what we need; namely, have stimulus and long-term prosperity? Isn't it worse that at the same time the President is saying let's cut all these taxes for the millionaires, he is shorting homeland security and education? Our colleague, PAUL SARBANES, said it best when he said we ought to call this plan "leave no millionaire behind."

    We have President Bush sign a bill called Leave No Child Behind. We are going to get a bill pretty soon here that breaks the promise he made to the children of this country. He stood with Senator Kennedy, he stood with Congressman MILLER, the champions of education and children, and now he will not fund it because he wants to give the money back. He is not funding homeland security, and our States are suffering as a result.

    So the juxtaposition of these two things—a plan that does not do the job, plus shorting our people in terms of education and homeland defense—isn't this a time that we have not seen ever before, a dangerous time for our people?