[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 205 (Wednesday, December 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H15279-H15280]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 WE CANNOT FORGET THE POOR IN OUR NATION IN ORDER TO MAKE THE WEALTHY 
                               WEALTHIER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. White). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson] is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I have listened with 
interest. I, too, am tired with the rhetoric. No matter which way you 
put it, there are real people out there being affected. I am from a 
regional city with many, many, many Federal employees. I, too, have 
gotten messages: Stick with the President.
  I am from a city and a district that has one of the most well-known 
medical schools, one of the most well-known dental schools. A medical 
school that has four Nobel Prize winners there now in my district. None 
of them are for these cuts. All of them understand that when we put the 
bottom line to it, there are a few more dollars being added. So no, 
there is not a cut as such; but what we have forgotten to be honest 
with the people about, there are a million more people going into the 
system to share these dollars. When you put that many more people 

[[Page H15280]]
into a system, those dollars will not spread broadly enough.
  When these dollars do not spread, the individuals see it as a cut 
because the services are simply not there. We can call it whatever we 
want to call it, but when the services are not there, the choices are 
not there, and people are having to pay more out of their pockets. When 
offsprings of these senior citizens are having to pick up the tab, when 
spouses are having to give up their job security and their homes to pay 
bills, they see it as a cut. We can count the dollars, whatever we want 
to do, it is a cut for the people. They feel it. They know it when they 
feel it.
  Mr. Speaker, we are doing this just the opposite than what America 
has promised. We are punishing the poor and the most vulnerable to help 
the rich. That is not the way it has been intended. You can say that we 
are giving a tax break to persons making $75,000 a year, but when you 
are taking away from those who are making $25,000 or less, that is 
punishment of the most vulnerable population. When we take away Head 
Start, when we take away education funds, we are doing just the 
opposite of what our society needs to cope with tomorrow. Any way you 
look at it, that is hurting all of us, because we hurt our future.
  Every nation that is doing better economically has a history of 
investing in their human resources. That is their people. We are 
refusing to do that. We are in the shape of a Third World nation, but 
it is OK if you are rich. It is the poor, the disabled, the elderly, 
that are being affected, and our children, which is this Nation's 
future.
  Anyone who thinks the rich children are safe while we let poor 
children wander around in the wilderness of poverty, hunger, and the 
lack of education is in a different world than reality. Every child's 
future is at stake, not just the wealthy. We can get up here and talk 
all we want to talk about saving the future for our children, taking 
away the price tag. Let me assure you, when we remove food, when we 
remove shelter, when we subject the poorest children to water that is 
not safe, food that is not safe, and continue to dump in the 
neighborhoods where air is not safe, do not think we are not going to 
pick up the tab. We are going to pick it up through hospital bills, we 
will pick it up through prisons, but we have the responsibility and we 
will pick it up somehow.
  We simply cannot forget the poor in our Nation just to keep making 
the wealthy wealthier. It does not work. It does not work, no matter 
what gender, no matter what color, no matter what the origin of birth. 
It does not work for any of us.
  It is time for all of us to come to the table, forget the rhetoric, 
forget we are going to do just a revolution for the sake of revolution. 
We have to think about human beings. These are human beings we are 
affecting. These are living, breathing people. I say to you, it is 
time, it is time for us for give attention to the most vulnerable.

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