[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 65 (Wednesday, May 9, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H2455-H2456]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     GOP AGENDA: SHREDDING THE SAFETY NET WHILE PROTECTING DEFENSE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Woolsey) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow this body will vote on a 
Republican budget bill that is nothing short of reprehensible. Once 
again, my friends on the other side of the aisle are insisting that the 
poor and working-class families continue to suffer and struggle because 
heaven forbid we should ask the Department of Defense to do its share 
to meet our fiscal challenges.
  You can't walk into this Chamber, Mr. Speaker, without hearing a 
self-serving and self-righteous lecture from a Member of the majority 
about fiscal responsibility. But when they say, Let's cut spending, 
what they really mean is, Let's shred the safety net.
  So their bill puts a giant bull's-eye on the programs that struggling 
families need to keep their heads above water, especially in this tough 
economy. Under their bill, fewer women will get breast cancer 
screenings, fewer poor children will get meals at school or access to 
health care, and 1.7 million fewer seniors will get Meals on Wheels and 
other home-based services. They are willing to cut Medicare child abuse 
prevention and consumer financial protection, and they want to push 1.8 
million people off the food stamp program--a program, by the way, that 
my family needed to survive when I was a single working mom more than 
40 years ago. I don't know what we would have done without food stamps.
  But guess which part of the Federal Government--which bloated, well-
fed bureaucracy--continues to get lavish support from the majority? 
That's right--the Pentagon, the military industrial complex. Even 
though the sequester is supposed to apply across the board, the 
majority wants to exempt defense and make domestic programs absorb all 
the cuts. That's the way they do business. They pinch pennies on the 
very real human needs of the American people. They nickel and dime 
hardworking families who deserve a fair shot and need a hand up.
  For 10\1/2\ years, Mr. Speaker, we've been at war. And between Iraq 
and Afghanistan, the American people are out $1.3 trillion--that's 
trillion, with a T, Mr. Speaker--$1.3 trillion wasted on a policy that 
is killing our people, hurting our national security, and undermining 
our standing in the world.
  For pennies on the dollar, we could replace permanent warfare with a 
SMART Security platform that will keep our country safe by focusing on 
development, diplomacy, and investment in humanitarian needs in the 
developing world. And we'd have plenty left over--plenty--to shore up 
the safety net, fund antipoverty programs, and restore the American 
Dream.
  If we're serious about reducing the deficit, then progressives are 
willing to talk, but there has to be a shared sacrifice. There has to 
be a balanced approach. We won't take it out on our most vulnerable 
people, not when we're waging a failed war that is our biggest ticket 
item, not when we continue to throw billions of dollars at Cold War 
aircraft and weapons systems that are serving absolutely no purpose.

                              {time}  1040

  And not when we continue to maintain a nuclear arsenal that's enough 
to destroy civilization several times over. Targeting social services 
while giving defense and war spending a free pass is not fiscal 
responsibility. It's ideological warfare.
  Let's get our priorities straight. It's time to cut defense spending, 
Mr. Speaker. It's time to bring our troops home. And it's time to 
reinvest in the American people. And the time is now.

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