[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 162 (Friday, December 16, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H12034]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           MEAN-SPIRITED CUTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, earlier tonight, I was asked by a reporter 
if perhaps I and other Members were upset that this close to Christmas 
and on a weekend night that the House was still working and the year 
was dragging on. And I said, no, that did not bother me a bit; I would 
be happy to work all night and through the holidays. But what bothered 
me was the substance of what we are working on and why we are still 
here.
  It can be distilled down to three simple reasons: We are here because 
the Republicans have a package of mean-spirited cuts they want to make 
just before Christmas. They want to hack $14 billion out of student 
financial aid; billions of dollars out of food assistance, school 
lunch, food stamps; dump the Medicaid burden for underinsured or 
uninsured people back onto the States; cut foster care; and cut long-
term care. And they say they have to do that because of the deficit.
  But then they have bated it with tax cuts for the wealthy. That is 
the present they want to put under the tree before we leave. They want 
to push through, after the $50 billion in cuts in student financial 
aid, food assistance, medical assistance, foster care and long-term 
care, they want to give tax cuts to the wealthiest among us.
  Disproportionately, their cuts will go to people who invest for a 
living and earn over $300,000 a year. They have a theory that values 
investors over wage and salary earners. It is called trickle-down 
economics. What they say is, if we enrich those people, those who earn 
over $300,000 a year, particularly those who earn over $1 million a 
year, if we give them more tax cuts and if we borrow money to give them 
tax cuts, they will trickle down on the rest of America and put people 
to work. They will float their yachts on a sea of red ink, and they 
will hire people to wash the yachts and cut the lawn, and therefore, 
America benefits.
  Unfortunately, they would increase the deficit even after their mean-
spirited cuts. So that is their pre-Christmas agenda: To stick it to 
the working families and the struggling and the young in America so 
that the wealthiest among us, who are already doing quite well, will 
have yet a merrier Christmas.
  And then they have one last thing: They want to drill in the Alaska 
National Wildlife Refuge. The entire Congress is being held captive by 
one Senator from Alaska. He is going to stick that on one bill or 
another before he lets Congress go home.
  Substitute for a comprehensive energy policy for the United States of 
America, something that might free us from the oil companies and OPEC, 
something that might break through into the 21st century in terms of 
new technologies, they want to push through drilling in the Alaska 
National Wildlife Refuge.
  So that is their troika: Cuts to Americans in need and Americans 
trying to make better of their lives; tax cuts for those who are 
already doing phenomenally well; and then, finally, yet another gift to 
the oil industry, on top of the subsidies they provided in the energy 
bill.
  It is a pretty sad policy, but perhaps they will at least give a lump 
of coal to every American to put in the fireplace to try to keep warm 
because they cannot afford their natural gas or electric heat or their 
oil for their furnace this year.

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