[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 53 (Wednesday, March 22, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H3544-H3545]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             SACRIFICES IN THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Olver] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OLVER. Mr. Speaker, we have debated for many hours today on the 
welfare reform bill, the so-called Personal Responsibility Act, and it 
is a very important piece of legislation indeed.
  The Republicans say that this bill is about sacrifices. And indeed 
there are going to be 5 million families, and in those 5 million 
families there are 9.5 million children who are indeed going to make 
some sacrifices. Because for each one of those families, for each of 
the next 5 years on average, they will use nearly $2,000 worth of 
income and food and care for children while the parents go to work and 
care for abused children and such.
  And every one of those 5 million families has under $15,000 of income 
at the 
[[Page H3545]] present time from which they are going to sacrifice 
least $2,000.
  Why are we doing that? Is it to balance the budget? No, not even the 
first step on that. Not a single economist of some 20 or so, mostly 
chosen by the Republican majority for their willingness to say what the 
majority wanted them to say, not a single one of those economists 
supported the tax cut as a way to get about balancing the budget.
  Is it to reduce the deficit? Well, here is a chart that shows indeed 
what the deficit is and what it has been over a period of time. And you 
can see this massive deficit that was built up during the Reagan years 
and the Bush years, year after year, after many years of nearly 
balanced budgets and then slowly rising, but this huge deficit in the 
Reagan and the Bush years, year after year after year.
  But, no, it is not going to reduce the deficit. Because after the 
amendment that we adopted today which allows the savings to come from 
the welfare bill, the welfare reform bill, those savings are not to be 
used for reducing the deficit. They are, in fact, to be used to give a 
massive tax cut to the richest among us.
  Fifty billion dollars of moneys from families, from the 5 million 
families with under $15,000 a year is going to be transferred. Fifty 
billion dollars is going to be transferred to the 2 million families 
who have now presently over $200,000 per year. Each one of those 
families is going to see almost $5,000
 per year for the next 5 years on average of tax reductions.

  Now, where is the sacrifice here for those 2 million families who 
presently make over $200,000 per year under the present tax laws? Where 
is the sacrifice there? I know, if you hadn't already guessed, there is 
not a single family of a Congressman or Congresswoman who is going to 
be sacrificing a penny in that process.
  And what are we as Americans going to be gaining from this? Are we 
going to get growth in the economy by putting people to work or a lower 
unemployment rate?
  Well, every time the economy looks as if it is going to take off and 
grow a bit or the unemployment rate goes below 6 percent, the Federal 
Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, raises the interest rate to cut the 
growth rate and to put people out of work.
  Where is the sacrifice for all of those 2 million families that are 
going to be given $50 billion in tax cuts that is going to be taken 
from the 5 million families and their 9\1/2\ million children, families 
that have less than $15,000 a year of income?
  Well, there is a sacrifice here ultimately, even if it is a little 
hard to see. And it may take a few years to see it, and it comes in 
crime particularly.
  Because we are going to see in a few years down the road thousands 
more people in prisons, prisons that cost $60,000 a cell to build and 
$20,000 to maintain a prisoner in one of those cells. We are going to 
see more drive-by shootings and more thefts and robberies and house 
breaks and drug abuse and sales of drugs. And it will only take a few 
more years. That is a few years down the road.
  In all of my years in the legislature of my State, and there were 
quite a number of those, and my few years, 4 years now, in the 
Congress, that is the most vicious and the most far-reaching attack on 
children that I have ever seen, and I have seen more than a few of 
those in my years in government.
  Because whenever you need to cut revenues, whenever you need to cut 
expenditures, children are targeted. They can't fight back. They can't 
vote.
  But some of us are going to fight back for them.

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