[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 172 (Thursday, November 2, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H11738-H11739]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




THE EFFECT ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE OF THE POTENTIAL CRISIS IN THE BUDGET 
                      AND CUTS IN SOCIAL PROGRAMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. Jackson-Lee] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE. Mr. Speaker, we come to this podium to raise several 
issues, and so many are before us. I do think in terms of the 
philanthropic limitations on pressing their points, we do trample on 
constitutional rights of first amendment speech when we deny the Boy 
Scouts and Girl Scouts and United Way to press their issues before the 
U.S. Congress. I hope we will consider that.
  What I would hope that we would also consider as we proceed this week 
is to not talk about Democrats and Republicans, frankly, but really to 
talk about the American people and the potential crisis that we are not 
facing in light of some very argumentative language and mean-spirited 
language about holding this country hostage, about train wrecks and 
refusing to lift the debt ceiling, which for many people might sound 
extremely confusing, but we are not at a point with a budget 
reconciliation proposal, dominated and proposed by the Republican 
majority, that cuts $270 billion from Medicare and $182 billion from 
Medicaid, cuts education, training, and cuts the opportunity for 
research and development, clearly not a direction this country should 
go in as it relates to the needs for our young people to be educated, 
cutting and burdening our students in colleges by increasing the amount 
of student loan payments they have to make by taxing them during the 
time they are in college.
  We find that really, whatever persuasion the American people are, you 
will find now cited in the Wall Street Journal that 73 percent of 
Americans prefer smaller Medicare and education cuts over a 10-year 
budget.
  No one is denying that there should be an opportunity to balance this 
budget. Most of us in our right mind are concerned about the future of 
this country, and those of us who have come from local government and 
State government, I have come from local government in the city of 
Houston, have balanced budgets. But it is patently unfair as the 
American people, these are not Democrats and Republicans, who have said 
73 percent prefer a 10-year budget plan and much smaller cuts, because 
they know what they will face as working Americans when their children 
who are in college, whether it be community college or whether it be a 
4-year college or graduate school, will have interest accruing on their 
student loans. They understand what it means when we have cut 30 
percent of research and development, the very crux of creating jobs in 
America for those who come out with their diploma and are told that 
there is no employment. They, frankly, know what it means when 61 
percent ask for the President of the United States, as I have done by 
way of a letter to him, to veto this Budget Reconciliation Act.

                              {time}  1515

  My challenge and charges to the Republican majority and to the 
Speaker is that we should not hold this Nation hostage with respect to 
the debt ceiling. We have bonds that may be in default, we have the 
potential for mortgage rates to go up over this period of time, car 
payments to go up over this period of time, and we are facing a crisis 
that will not allow us, frankly, to consider the concerns of Americans.
  I have to look at, in the summer of 1996 in Houston, TX, the loss of 
some 6,000 summer jobs for our young people. 

[[Page H 11739]]

Now, many have accused those positions that come through the Houstons 
works program and come through funding through the Department of Labor 
as being baby-sitting positions.
  Well, let me tell my colleagues what it does for high school students 
who have never been exposed to the work world. It gives them a 
challenge. It gives them income in many instances to provide for their 
parents who need to have extra income to make ends meet, it helps 
expose them to career opportunities, and yes, it sometimes provides 
them with the simple things like food, clothing, and the opportunity to 
go back to school in the fall. Yet, because of cuts in programs that 
have been constructive all over the Nation, job training programs and 
summer work programs, of which I am a product of, we will have a crisis 
in the summer of 1996.
  Mr. Speaker, this crisis can be avoided if we take a moment to look 
at this budget reconciliation package and acknowledge that it is the 
absolutely wrong direction to take this country. We are remembering the 
1981 tax cuts of which this $270 billion will be used, and let me say 
to those who are making under $50,000 and may have two or more 
children, you will not see any tax cut, for they have cut sizably the 
earned income tax credit.
  Many of our citizens who consider themselves middle income and make 
$28,000, they will not receive that benefit, and they have cut the 
earned income tax credit that has been really a support system and a 
reward system for those working individuals making under $50,000. We 
will not get that with the $270 billion in Medicare cuts that are 
supposed to be for tax cuts for those making over $300,000.
  So my point is, let us not hold this Nation, Americans, hostage on 
this issue of the debt ceiling. It is time to extend it so that we do 
not go into default, and that we acknowledge that we have a 
responsibility worldwide to keep this country's system, economic system 
stable, so that real discussions can be had: Do we want to cut student 
loans. I mean, frankly, do we want to do that. Do we not want to look 
reasonably at the Medicare cuts to ensure that Medicare is stable for 
those of you who are now working Americans, but yet not burden the 
elderly Americans who would have to pay the higher premiums, and do we 
want you today to have higher mortgage payments and car payments 
because we are not frankly dealing with the American people.
  Lift the debt ceiling for a while, let us have a budget 
reconciliation package that really responds to the American public, all 
of us, some 73 percent who want this country to work.

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