[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 57 (Tuesday, March 28, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H3811]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THE CONTRACT IS HURTING AMERICANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 1995, the gentlewoman from Oregon [Ms. Furse] is recognized 
during morning business for 2 minutes.
  Ms. FURSE. Mr. Speaker, it is day 83 of the Republican contract. And 
every day a Republican has come down on this floor and told us what 
part of the contract they passed. But what they have not told us is 
what it did to us. So I am here to tell you who got hurt in the 
contract and who didn't. Who are the winners. Who are the losers.
  Well, kids got hurt. Changes in the School Lunch Program made it 
harder for them to learn.
  Single parents got hurt. Child care was cut. Now working families, 
maybe just a single mom or a single dad at home, they won't have 
somebody to look after their kids when they are out working.
  And then pregnant women, they got hurt. At a time when good nutrition 
is essential, we cut the WIC Program. Children will suffer, and the 
taxpayer will suffer because they will be paying for those expensive 
low-birth-weight babies.
  Seniors got hurt. Housing assistance, heating assistance, those 
programs got cut in the contract.
  Students got hurt. If they were hoping to go to college, they will 
find fewer student loans to help them.
  And the disabled, they got hurt. Fewer will receive assistance, and 
many parents with disabled children will have their stipend eliminated. 
Consumers got hurt. Their ability to redress wrongs has been reduced. 
All poor people got hurt, and most middle-income people got hurt.
  The Coast Guard got hurt. That means less safety for boaters and 
fishers, less drug interdiction. And, of course, the environment, that 
got hurt. Clean air and water safety, that has been cut. Fish and 
wildlife programs cut.
  And veterans, they got hurt. Their medical benefits and hosing 
assistance has been cut.
  The taxpayers got hurt.
  And, most of all, America got hurt.
  Well, now I want to tell you about who did not get hurt. Who were the 
winners under the contract?
  Well, the very wealthy, they did fine. There are tax breaks coming 
their way.
  The Pentagon did fine, no cuts, not even the $1 cut I asked or the $8 
billion cut I asked.
  Corporations didn't get hurt. They did fine.
  Polluters did fine.
  I suggest to my Republican colleagues when they go back for the 
Easter break that they realize that they represent all Americans, not 
just the wealthy, the polluters, and the corporations.


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