[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 58 (Wednesday, March 29, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H3886]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         SSI AND TRAINING CUTS

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share with this body a 
story of individual courage and independence, the type of story that my 
colleagues from the other side of the aisle like to hold up as the 
American ideal.
  Mr. Speaker, I had the privilege of meeting a very special young 
woman from my home State of Texas by the name of Beth. Beth, by her own 
description, is retarded. Now, with a low-skills job, she pays taxes. 
She is determined to get a better job and soon get her own apartment.
  But the Republicans' tax cut will not help Beth. While she was 
growing up in Texas, Beth's working-class family cared for her with the 
help of supplemental security income, the SSI Program. She has had 
access to various Federal youth job training programs that gave her 
help so that she could get into the public schools.
  The Republicans' tax cut will not help Beth. Beth and others like 
her, true Americans asking only for a hand in overcoming adversity, may 
now be slapped down by the Contract on America, to pay for symbolic tax 
cuts, tax cuts that do not do any for us any good.
  The other side is ready to cut SSI, job training, and student loans 
designed to give the disadvantaged an opportunity. Mr. Speaker, the 
only way that we can help Beth is to make sure that we enhance the 
opportunities. Mr. Speaker, the tax cuts that the Republicans offered 
are not the right thing to do.

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