[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 157 (Thursday, December 8, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H11269]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TAX CUTS BENEFIT THE PROSPEROUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. McHenry). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, in the face of our $8.1 trillion debt, the 
House recently passed a budget reconciliation bill. This so-called 
Deficit Reduction Act cut spending by $53 billion by cutting programs 
like health care for the sick, education benefits for students, child 
support help for parents, and food stamps for hungry families. Even as 
supporters of the budget reconciliation bill applauded their own new-
found frugality, they knew the savings would never be realized because 
today the House passed a tax reconciliation bill, erasing the 3-week-
old savings of $53 billion with $70 billion in new tax cuts. And most 
egregiously, the lion's share of these tax cuts benefit the most 
prosperous among us.
  At a time when one in seven Americans have no health insurance, the 
budget bill cut $11 billion for Medicaid, the most basic part of 
America's safety net. It further empowered health care providers to 
turn away patients who are unable to pay. This was not only uncaring 
but fiscally unwise. It will cost our Nation more certainly in the long 
run when significant health problems are left untreated.
  Mr. Speaker, with a Federal debt now of $8 trillion, every American 
owes $27,000. Americans understand that the inability of the 
administration and Congress to balance the budget will have a 
disastrous effect on future generations. Imagine leaving our kids with 
an unpaid $27,000 credit card bill and more interest on the way.
  But holding back medical treatment for chronically ill children is 
not the way to restore fiscal discipline. Neither is making cuts to 
education that will close the doors of opportunity to a generation of 
students. The budget bill cut student loan programs by more than $14 
billion. With new fees and higher interest rates, educational 
opportunities will be lost, and all of the stimulus to the economy that 
would have been generated by all those new engineers and scientists 
will be lost with them.
  Does our Nation truly benefit economically or otherwise by pushing so 
many deeper into poverty, or by closing the doors to higher education? 
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina and all that it revealed about the 
persistence of poverty in America, can we really have a more secure 
future with a less effective safety net?
  I am proud to be a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 
moderate and conservative Democrats concerned about fiscal 
responsibilities. I join my Blue Dog colleagues in seeking ways to 
reduce the debt; but we were compelled to oppose this bill because it 
was a sham, a debt increase that made the poor poorer, the rich richer, 
and the country's future even more precarious. Any reasonable look at 
the numbers will easily reveal the truth: these bills result in an 
increase to the national debt.
  As a Nation, we have gone from an $86 billion surplus under President 
Clinton in 2000 to a record $412 billion deficit last year. Our fiscal 
house is more than out of order; it is spiraling out of control.
  What we need right now is a balanced budget strategy and one that 
honors the values of the American people, that rewards work not wealth, 
that requires the sacrifice of all Americans for the common good and 
not the sacrifice alone of the poor, the young, or the infirm.

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