[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 81 (Tuesday, May 16, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H4959-H4960]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              AMERICANS ARE GETTING SMART ABOUT THE BUDGET

  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to take the floor today 
to talk about how fortunate we are that the American people are so 
smart. I mean, as we go into this budget debate, there are a lot of 
people who think they were not paying attention. But when you look at 
the polls today, let me tell you, they were paying attention. They 
figured it out, and they do not like it.
  Sixty percent of Americans in the polls released today reject both 
the Senate and the House Republican budgets. Now, why do they do this?
  Well, we have heard over and over again that they should be very 
happy because the cuts are going to be distributed across America, and 
that the Democrats are terrible people because they are inciting class 
warfare and they are doing all sorts of things like that.
  Well, OK, so now the American people have figured out, yes, the cuts 
really are distributed across the entire economic gambit of Americans. 
But it is for middle- and low-income people. They are cutting programs, 
such as cuts in Medicare, cuts in school lunches, cuts in student 
loans, cuts in all sorts of programs that have helped them, that have 
helped them get up.
  Now, what do the rich people get in the line of cuts? They get tax 
cuts. Would you know, they have all figured out that tax cuts are a 
whole lot better than program cuts. And guess who comes out on the 
short end of those cuts?
  Well, once again, it is the middle class who is going to come out on 
the short end of those cuts. We are having to cut like mad so people 
over $200,000 a year are going to get these phenomenal tax breaks. I 
think that is totally unfair. But it is not just what I think, now the 
American people are beginning to agree.
  If you look at student loans, for example, in my State of Colorado 
there are almost 90,000 people on student loans. So they are saying the 
minute they get them they should start paying interest. It is 
absolutely no different than when you get a car, except when you get a 
car, you get the car. You get to use it right away. So it makes sense 
to start paying interest right away, because you are using the car 
right away.
  When you are going to school, you cannot use that education until you 
get to the end of the schooling and you get diploma in hand. That is 
why we have not charged people interest until they had diploma in hand. 
That is like having the real car.
  So when they try to tell you this is the same, it is not the same at 
all. And it is going to end up causing people to borrow even more money 
to pay interest on the money that they previously borrowed.
  I think it is outrageous that these young kids are having to graduate 
from school owing so much money. No wonder they do not dare get married 
before they are 40. I mean, the next thing we are going to have to do 
is figure out how octogenarians can be fertile or nobody in the middle 
class is going to be able to afford a family until they are in their 
eighties at this rate.
  I think American families have figured this out, and that is why the 
polling numbers today are very different. The average American family 
feels like a squirrel in one of those wheels. They run and they run and 
they run, and they run harder and harder and harder every year. And you 
know what? At the end of the year, they are even more exhausted than 
they were the year before, their tongue is hanging out, and they never 
get out of the bottom of the wheel.
  If they are suddenly going to have to deal with cuts in their 
parents' Medicare so that they have got to start picking that up and 
helping them out to the tune of about $1,000 extra a year, if their 
kids are going to get double whammied with interest from the time they 
take the loan out so they are going to have to borrow even more, if all 
of these things come crushing in on them and they see many programs in 
schools that have enriched the schools through science, nutrition 
standards, and so forth being cut, guess what? They are going to have 
to run even faster, and they are still not going to get out of the 
bottom of the wheel. But 
[[Page H4960]] meanwhile, those equal cuts that went to the rich means 
they are going to get $20,000 more in their pocket per year.
  That is not a fair deal. I was accused of being a socialist on this 
floor the other day by a Member, and I must say what I want to say is 
the other side in their budget is socialism for the rich. No one has 
ever seen socialism for the rich. But this is a whole new Republican 
program, socialism for the rich so they can get richer. Those are the 
cuts that help them.
  Well, I am not that kind of socialist, I can tell you, and I will 
make it very, very clear over and over again. That is not my program. I 
think Government is there to help people who need help, to teach them 
to fish, to get them on their legs and get them going, and I think the 
time has come and the American people have figured it out.


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