[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 44 (Thursday, March 9, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H2972-H2973]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


               TAKING FOOD OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF CHILDREN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Volkmer] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. VOLKMER. Mr. Speaker, we are now at day 65, if my math is right, 
of 100 days and we are now getting to see toward the final 35 days of 
that 100 days. And when we look at it we look to see that we are going 
to have severe reductions in food stamps, school lunches, nutrition 
aid, the Women, Infants and Children's Program, hearing assistance for 
the elderly, and all because we have to give a big tax cut for the 
wealthy. It is not going to deficit reduction, it is not going to 
balance the budget. It is going to go to the wealthy, and it is going 
to be coming up from the young kids down here that are hungry and need 
that nourishment.
  When I look at the school lunch program, we contacted our State 
Department of Education, we contacted the Governor's office, we 
contacted some of our local school districts, and the analysis of that 
school lunch program is in. Members do not have to take my word for it. 
The Governor of Missouri, the school superintendent of Missouri, the 
experts who operate the school lunch program in Missouri all agree. The 
majority party, led by Newt Gingrich, is taking food out of the mouths 
of children by cutting the school lunch program. Even worse, the 
majority party at the same time is cutting the same children's food 
stamps. Poor children in this country not only will not get a hot meal 
in school, but when they get 
[[Page H2973]] home there will be less food. In the morning when they 
wake up there will be less or no food, and when they go to school there 
will not be any breakfast program at the school for them.
  How are they going to learn on empty stomachs, their stomachs 
growling and turning around and churning because they have not gotten 
the nutrition that they need?
  The majority party, quite simply, does not care if poor children in 
this country eat or not.
  Is the majority party taking this mean-spirited approach in order to 
reduce the deficit? Oh, no, Mr. Speaker, not to balance the budget, not 
to reduce the deficit, but to give a tax cut to the wealthy. How 
callous can you get, taking food from children to give fat cats more 
money?
                              {time}  2110

  Let us look at it. These young children out here, we have got a man 
and a wife working part-time, making a little over minimum wage. They 
are making about $20,000 a year, $19,000, $19,000 a year. They are 
scraping by. They have got two kids. They are eligible for food stamps. 
In some ways they are eligible for a reduced price for the school 
lunch.
  But when they pass their bills on welfare reform, they call it, those 
folks are not going to get anything.
  Well, they say, hey, we are going to give you a $500 per child tax 
cut. That is what we are going to do for you.
  But for that couple, folks, and those children, that $500 is zip. It 
is nothing, because it is not a refundable tax cut. So they do not get 
a thing.
  But what they are doing is, they are saying, those kids, you do not 
need any help, because your parents are making all of $20,000, you do 
not need any help.
  You know what they say who really needs the money, folks? Who really 
needs that money? Well, under their tax bill, the man and wife who are 
making $200,000, $200,000, they are going to get, for those same two 
kids, they are going to get $1,000; $1,000 is what they are going to 
get. And they tell you those people making that $200,000 need it. They 
need it for their kids. But the one making $18,000, $19,000, they do 
not need anything, they need less. And that is what they are going to 
get from the majority party.
  You know why they say that $200,000 couple needs that money, that 
thousand dollars for their kids? They need it so they can be the 
leaders of this country, so they can go to Harvard and Yale and all 
those other places and they can sock the money away. So if you have 
ever seen Robin Hood in reverse, just watch the next 35 days, America.

                          ____________________