[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 27 (Wednesday, March 5, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H729]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   THE BLOOD OF THE PEOPLE WILL BE ON THE HANDS OF THE BUDGET CUTTERS

  (Mr. DAVIS of Illinois asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, every day we hear more and more 
about what is wrong with the President's budget, yet his critics have 
not put on the table one plan, one proposal, one budget, or even one 
idea, except to talk about cutting and balancing, cutting the heart out 
of the neediest people in our country: children, senior citizens, the 
mentally ill, disabled, and the poor.
  Balancing with the idea that we can get blood out of a turnip, that 
we can provide services and provide opportunities with very little or 
no money.
  There are a lot of things that I do not know, but I do know one 
thing. I know that as Frederick Douglass taught, in this world we may 
not get all that we pay for, but we most certainly must pay for all 
that we get. We cannot have a great, civilized, and humane nation 
without paying the cost; if all we can do is cut, cut, cut, all that we 
will get is blood, blood, blood.
  I tell you, the blood of the people will be on the hands of those who 
did the cutting.

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