[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 44 (Monday, March 25, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E376-E377]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2014

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 19, 2013

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the state of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H. Con. Res. 25) 
     establishing the budget for the United States Government for 
     fiscal year 2014 and setting forth appropriate budgetary 
     levels for fiscal years 2015 through 2023:

  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chair, I rise today in opposition to H. Con. Res. 
25, the Ryan Republican Budget, and the coarse meanness it embodies. I 
rise today in defense of those who are the subject of this 
legislation's contempt. I rise today in support of the New Deal, the 
Great Society, and the programs that have pulled our people out of 
poverty and our Nation out of depression--the programs that Mr. Ryan's 
budget demolishes to pay for tax breaks to the already wealthy.
  There is so much wrong with the Chairman's budget I do not know where 
to start. It attacks the poor, the working, and middle class; it guts 
programs that protect our seniors, our children, and our environment; 
it relies upon fuzzy math and budgetary tricks that are not befitting 
of federal legislation. It is quite simply a perfect distillation of 
the disdain its authors have for everyone who is not a millionaire.
  Mr. Ryan's budget is one of the cruelest that has been introduced in 
the House of Representatives. It shifts Medicare to a voucher system, 
which virtually assures that many seniors will be unable to receive the 
care that they need. It destroys two million jobs with the same 
wrongheaded austerity measures that have Europe standing on the 
precipice of economic calamity. It hands a six-figure tax cut to 
millionaires. But then you see the other side of the Chairman's 
budget--the fantasist side. That is the side that imagines all those 
tax cuts will be paid for by eliminating deductions; the side that 
imagines that those deduction eliminations will not harm the middle 
class; the side that imagines that after a majority of Americans 
roundly rejected this ``tax cuts now, tax revenues later'' platform 
last fall, it is a good time to double down.
  Earlier this week my friends across the aisle seemed to admit a hard 
to swallow fact: they are out of touch with Americans. The report that 
came out Monday suggested that Republicans need to reach out to a 
broader segment of society; that they need to court voters outside the 
insular world of the million dollar a year club. Given that a majority 
of Americans last fall cast their vote for a Democratic President, a 
Democratic Senator, and a Democratic Representative--I would tend to 
agree. But let me offer you some friendly advice about outreach--the 
answer is not to keep making the same base attacks on the poor we heard 
last summer and last fall. The answer is not to weaken Medicaid and 
TANF; the answer is not to weaken Social Security, or turn Medicare 
into a voucher system; and the answer is not to eviscerate all labor 
laws--as the Republican Study Committee budget would. The answer is 
none of the above--the answer is creating a budget that helps more than 
just the small crescent of the wealthy who make it into rooms where 
they can hear about how much better they are than 47% of Americans.
  If you want answers, take a look at the budgets put out by the 
Congressional Progressive Caucus' ``Back to Work Budget'' and the 
Congressional Black Caucus' ``Pro-Growth, Pro-People, Pro-America 
Budget.'' If you want to show Americans that your party cares for those 
who are not already millionaires, you need to provide the answers they 
are asking for. Those answers involve federal investment in the 
programs critical to having Americans who are prepared in mind, body, 
and spirit to build a new economy for the next generation. Those 
answers address concerns about our educational system, our 
infrastructure, and the critical services that will make sure our 
children are prepared to lead the world in the 21st Century. Those 
answers understand that any changes to Social Security need to be made 
separate from the yearly budget process. Those budgets understand that 
Social Security is a multi-generational pact--not a ``pay for'' and 
that it should not be changed to reflect the whims of a particular wing 
of a particular party.
  The answers that the American people are looking for reflect the 
fundamental proposition they voted for last fall--that those who have 
benefited the most from our society's bounty are blessed to have the 
most to give back.
  The American people recently spoke to the Budget Committee Chairman, 
but sometimes I wonder if he was listening.
  As much as you may wish that it is the answer to your political 
problems and the economic issues facing our country, the answer 
Americans are searching for does not involve continuing to repeal the 
Affordable Care Act again and again and again--you'll excuse me if I 
don't say ``again'' for each time my friends across the aisle have 
voted to repeal the ACA. It would seem a rather pointless exercise and 
it would take quite a while. While we may be tired of the gimmicks and 
the pointless political theatre, we are not too tired to defend a 
century of progress. You cannot exhaust the conviction of Americans 
that Social Security is a promise to our seniors; that Medicare should 
not be a voucher; that Medicaid should not be a block grant left to the 
states; and that children should not be left to fend for themselves. 
These repeated attempts to do so are wastes of our, and by extension, 
America's time.
  I know sometimes it is tempting for my friends across the aisle to 
engage in name-calling and class warfare: implying that those who need 
federal services are lazy, laying about on hammocks. But not everyone 
is born into a family made wealthy through government infrastructure 
contracts. Some children are born to parents who simply are not 
prepared to provide all the skills and knowledge that our modern 
society requires of students, workers, and citizens. That is where 
Medicaid and CHIP come in: ensuring that children grow up healthy. That 
is where food assistance comes in: ensuring that children are not too 
hungry to learn, too hungry to care about their future. That is where 
Head Start comes in: ensuring that children receive the early 
engagement critical to success.
  When we consider the Chairman's budget--I want us to think what we 
would want for our own children if we were rendered unable to help 
them. I hope you will consider that question. What if it was my child 
who needed the programs I am cutting to give six-figure tax cuts to 
everyone who makes more than a million dollars a year? What if it was 
my child who was struck by a chronic ailment--but they could not get 
treatment? What if it were my child who needed the support I am now 
denying to other people's children? No, we would want them to have the 
services protected and improved in the Congressional Black Caucus and 
the Congressional Progressive Caucus' budgets. Whether you care to 
admit it or not, no child who goes to sleep hungry or in pain, is 
comforted by the thought that millionaires have a few extra hundred 
thousand dollars in their banks.
  So instead of Chairman Ryan's budget, which guts federal assistance 
to the poor and threatens to plunge us into a deep recession, I 
encourage all my colleagues to endorse the budgets offered by the 
Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. 
These bills get Americans back to work; they invest in infrastructure 
improvements and repairs which necessity dictates must happen 
eventually. They know that the key to addressing our deficit is not 
cuts, but economic growth, that is why the Congressional Black Caucus 
adopts my Humphrey-Hawkins legislation, which puts every American who 
wants a job to work. And they provide trillions in deficit reduction 
over the next decade, but they do so through cuts and revenues that 
reflect a balanced approach. For example, they keep the Bush-era tax 
cuts for those making less than a quarter million dollars a year. And 
they treat the income of hedge fund billionaires just like they treat 
the income of a bus driver, something even President Ronald Reagan 
supported.
  I want to praise these budgets for their focus on the future. In the 
great choice that we face as a Nation, they do not simply abdicate 
responsibility as H. Con. Res. 25 does. They do not simply shovel money 
to the wealthiest Americans in ruinous tax breaks that are all but 
assured to explode the deficit--instead, they invest. They invest in 
infrastructure across the nation; they invest in our youth, providing 
increase in Pell Grants and workforce training; they invest in our 
public servants, the men and women who teach our children, guard our 
streets, and pull us from burning buildings. And they actually pay for 
all that with specific proposals rather than accounting gimmicks.
  Mr. Chair, let us end the division. Let us end the giveaways to those 
already lucky enough to make more than a million dollars a year. Let us 
come together--not just some, but all of us--and pass a budget--one 
that benefits not just some, but all of us. I urge all my colleagues to 
vote against H. Con. Res. 25, and for the CBC and CPC alternatives.

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