[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 56 (Thursday, April 2, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H4490]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  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 of Texas. Madam Speaker, earlier today I recounted 
the calamity that we find ourselves in with the budget and the spending 
of money here in the United States. Frankly, of course, the budgets 
over the past 8 years and the enormous expenditure of funds created a 
huge and growing deficit.
  I indicated earlier that we spent $667 billion for the Iraq war, high 
unemployment still ongoing, stories that you hear from constituents 
about mortgage foreclosures, inability to have their loans re-modified, 
and so you can see the importance of the debate today.
  And I'm very proud that, of the number of budgets that I had the 
opportunity to participate in and to argue for and to suggest the 
direction that they should take, they all focused on restoring the 
humanity and dignity of the American people.
  The Congressional Progressive Caucus budget focused on reducing the 
deficit by 58 percent in fiscal year 2012. In addition, it targeted 
waste, fraud, and abuse. It repealed the Bush tax cuts for the top 1 
percent of taxpayers. Let me emphasize that, the top 1 percent of 
taxpayers. That means that 99 percent of the American people would not 
get a tax increase of any kind. In fact, alongside of that principle is 
the principle of the President's budget, the budget we passed finally 
that guaranteed middle-class Americans a tax cut.
  The budget included in the Progressive budget health care for all, 
affordable, accessible health care so that there would be no tragedies 
such as young people, children needing transplants or transfusions, and 
they can't get it because their insurer denies it.
  We add an additional $300 billion as an additional part of the 
economic stimulus package so that there can be added assistance for 
unemployment insurance, food stamps, infrastructure spending, housing 
assistance, job creation.
  I come from the gulf region, where we are still suffering both from 
Hurricane Katrina and Rita and now Hurricane Ike. My neighbor to the 
south, the city of Galveston, the mayor and city manager and many of 
her constituents are still facing the calamity of trying to build 
housing, trying to restore the University of Texas medical branch, and 
we, as a Texas delegation, worked with the district Member to try to 
ensure that restoration.
  The budgets that were put here today respect the fact that there will 
be disasters in America, calamities such as fires and floods and, of 
course, hurricanes, storms, volcanos, that are spilling out such as in 
the State of Washington, that create havoc if those issues occur. And 
so this is a time when we opted to opt on the side of the people of 
America.
  The Congressional Black Caucus budget puts in place $18 billion more 
in health care, $17 billion more on education and job training. What 
happens to a person who is unemployed? They look for jobs or they look 
to steer themselves into another career. And what do you need to do 
that? You need job training, whether it's in the community college 
system like the Houston Community College, whether or not it is going 
into nursing school, going to become a truck driver, or going into IT, 
you need job training.
  Eight billion dollars on infrastructure so that the roads and the 
potholes and the bridges and the tunnels can be fixed, but more 
importantly, people can be put to work as we make a new America; $5.5 
billion on justice programs; and $4.5 billion on veterans benefits and 
services. And of all of these budgets, Madam Speaker, the Congressional 
Progressive Caucus and CBC and the President's budget all reinforce our 
commitment to veterans and our returning soldiers who put themselves 
and their families on the front lines.

                              {time}  1945

  Families and our soldiers are likewise on the front lines. So I'm 
very proud to stand here today to say that we did the right thing in 
voting on this budget. We did the right thing in focusing on health 
care reform--trying to fix the broken system of some 44 million to 47 
million Americans who are still uninsured.
  In that effort, we managed to save some $316 billion over 10 years; 
several provisions to improve quality and efficiency in health care. 
Then, as well, we made a significant down payment on health care reform 
by putting these savings, along with $317.8 billion from a tax policy 
change on upper-income taxpayers, into a $634 billion health reform 
reserve.
  We're holding a spot, Madam Speaker, so we can fix this for the 
American people. I mentioned education and energy. That is going to 
bring about green jobs.
  Madam Speaker, we did the right thing for the American people and I'm 
proud to be part of this Congress and go home to speak with my 
constituents on how we have helped to change their lives.

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