[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 119 (Monday, August 1, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H5818]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 1210
AND JUSTICE FOR ALL
(Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address
the House for 1 minute.)
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. It really is about justice for all. The
question becomes as we go into our conferences and caucuses to discuss
this new debt ceiling legislation: Who will this help?
Will it help the small businesses, which are the backbone of America?
Will it help the students who are now standing at the doors of colleges
and seeing them slam shut? Will it help those in nursing homes who now,
because of drastic cuts in Medicaid, will see their places of abode
lost? Will it help the hospitals, which care for the sick, because
there is no Medicare reimbursement or Medicaid?
We are going to be looking at this to see how it helps or hurts the
American people; but I tell you who it helps: big businesses. Are they
going to now step in and create jobs? Because, when we cut across the
board, public sector jobs will be cut all across America.
It has always been the government that stoops and comes in to raise
the American people up when there is a need. Are we going to help the
returning soldiers, 160,000-plus, who have PTSD? For those who want to
come into the workplace, will the corporate sector now stand up and be
counted?
Will only the friends of the Republicans be helped and not the poor
and working Americans--where is the justice for all. That's where we
needed bipartisanship on something that has already been done a hundred
times: the simple raising of the debt ceiling; instead we have put the
burden now on the backs of those who cannot speak for themselves.
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