[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 76 (Wednesday, May 3, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H3316-H3320]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Francis Rooney of Florida). Under the
Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2017, the gentleman from
Wisconsin (Mr. Pocan) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of
the minority leader.
Mr. POCAN. Mr. Speaker, I am here on behalf of the Progressive
Caucus, which is the largest values-based caucus within the Democratic
Party--74 members strong--who are helping to lead the legislative arm
of the resistance in this country.
We, every year, put forth a Progressive Caucus budget, which is
really a statement of the values of the Progressive Caucus and the
values of the American people. This year, this week, we released our
budget. But before I talk about it, let me just take a step back.
One of the things that people have asked us to do, asked so many of
our Progressive Caucus members in this Congress to do, is to really
fight and to lead the resistance here in Washington, D.C. And we are
fighting many of the
[[Page H3317]]
bad ideas that get proposed, from the idea of having a wall on the
Mexican border to the terrible tax plan that is going to cost tens of
millions of people access to health care, to a tax plan that is going
to lower rates for the wealthiest in the country and leave the working
class and those aspiring to be in the working class without any
benefits.
The cuts that the Trump administration has proposed in their budget,
there is just so many bad things, day after day, sometimes hour after
hour, in Washington, D.C., that happens. And it is the Congressional
Progressive Caucus that is largely leading many of those fights, saying
no to the bad ideas. But it is not enough to just say no. We also have
to have a positive, progressive alternative so that the American people
can see there is a true alternative.
You don't have to just go by the policies of this administration. You
don't have to go down the path that really leaves so many people out so
that the top 1 or 2 percent can continue to benefit. And that is
exactly what the Congressional Progressive Caucus is doing.
So when we put forth a Congressional Progressive Caucus budget, it is
a comprehensive budget that lays out the values of the American people
from everything from education, to infrastructure, to health care, to
our Nation's security. It is a document that we use throughout the year
to put forth positive, progressive ideas to show that there is an
alternative. You don't have to follow the ideas that have come forth
from the Republican majority in this House and the President.
Let me just start by talking about the Republican budget, the budget
that Donald Trump has proposed in his skinny budget he released a while
ago. He will be producing a more in-depth budget, but he laid out the
fundamental foundation of what his budget is going to look like. That
budget is a budget that has no additional revenue. It has $54 billion
of additional spending for the military, and because it has no
additional revenue, it has cuts to almost every other program that we
see, and these are deep cuts--20, 30 percent cuts--to all sorts of
agencies.
So let me share a little bit about what that budget looks like, and
then I will offer the contrast of what the Congressional Progressive
Caucus has put forward and why it means so much to have that budget in
place.
First of all, that $54 billion increase means you are going to have
to have a lot of cuts to a lot of other areas in the budget, and let me
just point a few of those out. One that means a lot to my district, and
I represent the people of south central Wisconsin, but it means a lot
to everyone across the country, is funding for the National Institutes
of Health, NIH.
That is the area where that funding goes to researchers across the
country who are finding cures for diseases so that we can live longer,
and better, and have healthier lives, and it is essential funding. That
is so important that, in the last Congress, one of the few things we
got done in a bipartisan way is, we did additional funding for the
National Institutes of Health.
Just today, in the Omnibus bill to get us through funding through
September 30 of this year, we upped funding in a bipartisan way for the
National Institutes of Health, because we, in a bipartisan way, value
the work they do. In President Trump's budget, there is a $6 billion
cut--almost 20 percent of that budget--that would happen, threatening
all sorts of research across the country.
For the Department of Education, there is a 13 percent cut, but that
is not just a 13 percent cut. That cut would be even deeper if you
didn't count the hundreds of millions of dollars put into taxpayer
funds going into private schools. It would be more like an 18 or 19
percent cut, but it is huge cuts.
Just in higher education alone, Pell grants--something that I was
fortunate enough to have--I grew up in a lower middle class family, and
I was fortunate enough to get loans, and work through college, and get
some Pell grants to help me so I could attend college. There is a $4
billion cut just in that line item. So clearly, there is not the
attention to education from the K-12 level or higher education in that
budget.
Programs like Head Start and others are devastated in the pre-K
level. So there are a lot of problems with President Trump's budget for
education. When you get to transportation, there is a 13 percent cut--
$2.4 billion--everything from Amtrak, to dollars going to other rail
programs and transit programs, investment programs that help people in
rural areas, TIGER grants for highway projects, and more.
In energy, we see the nonnuclear weapon portion of the energy budget,
a cut by 18 percent below the current level, and that contains programs
like LIHEAP that helps provide assistance to low-income seniors in
winter. Now, maybe a low-income senior in winter in Arizona isn't
experiencing the same thing they are in Wisconsin, or Michigan, or
Pennsylvania, or New York, or a lot of our States, but it gets cold.
And sometimes those heating bills can really sock a senior who is on a
limited income. That money is just vital to them being able to live in
their homes.
It completely cuts the Community Development Block Grant program.
That is things like housing programs, Meals on Wheels. I had the good
fortune of going around my district and delivering Meals on Wheels
about a year ago to constituents one day.
It is not just that you are providing a nourishing meal to seniors
who often can't get out of their homes, who this is the only place they
may get that nourishing meal, but it is also a check-in to make sure
that they are all right. Some are still living by themselves, and often
you don't know if you don't have that visit to be able to check in. It
would cut programs like that completely from getting any Federal funds.
At the Environmental Protection Agency, environmental programs, 50
programs would be eliminated, and 31.4 percent of their budget would be
gutted for all sorts of things that protect our clean air and clean
water--programs like the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative or the
Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiative. So many areas would be cut through
that funding, and that just doesn't make any sense.
This is a time that we have the Flint, Michigans of the world, and we
are finding that more and more communities with aging infrastructure of
their waterways are having lead in their water and other contaminants.
This is not the time to be cutting a program that watches out for this
by 31 percent; and on, and on.
There are so many cuts that affect real people. So while maybe it is
good for the defense contractors to get $54 billion because, trust me,
that money is not going to be shared with the people who actually
protect our country.
I was talking to another Member of Congress recently whose son is in
the military making $22,000 a year. I can guarantee you that $54
billion is not going to be targeted to truly improve what that person
is doing, what they are getting paid as they fight for our country to
protect our country, but it is going to go to a bunch of new weapons
systems and other things that allow the money that, again, is going to
go to that top 1 and 2 percent in this Nation.
So let me offer what that contrasts. Instead of putting 54 billion
new dollars into defense and cutting all of those programs I talked
about by huge amounts--20, 30 percent, our State Department, 28
percent, go down the list, huge cuts--we actually invest in this
country, and we invest in multiple levels.
The People's Budget: A Roadmap for the Resistance--that is what we
call it--does a whole lot of different things. Let me just highlight
some of what we put forward this week, along with 60 organizations,
major organizations that are endorsing the efforts that we put forward.
First of all, we have a $2 trillion investment in our Nation's
infrastructure; $2 trillion that is going into programs to modernize
our roads and bridges; modernize our water and sewer systems, our ports
and waterways; investing in our transit systems; investing in our K-12
school reconstruction; investing in high-speed broadband infrastructure
that we need so desperately in our rural parts of the country;
investing in the VA hospitals and extended-care facilities; and
investing in the actual workers who are going to do these projects.
This alone is a $2 trillion investment, and, throughout this budget,
it is estimated, by the Economic Policy Institute, would create 2.4
million new jobs
[[Page H3318]]
in this country, good family supporting wages, while we are reinvesting
in our Nation's bridges, and roads, and schools, and broadband, and
other infrastructure. That is a key part of what we have put out there,
and it is what is needed in this country.
We have to invest in our country, and this budget does just that. We
also look at taxes in a very different way, and we rewrite the rules in
a system that often seems rigged against the middle class and those
aspiring to be in the middle class.
We close loopholes for big corporations that send jobs overseas. We
stop CEOs from receiving millions in tax-free bonuses, and we tackle
income and equality by having fair tax rates--fair for those who are
working, and sharing a little more for those who are the wealthiest in
this country. We level the playing field for the working families
across this country.
In this budget, we also have a new initiative to invest $1 trillion
into childcare, childcare for everyone who needs it, pre-K education in
this country. There is no question, we know more people are working
more and working more jobs, but you can't if you don't have someone to
watch your children when you are doing that.
Having this in place will allow us to make sure that those crucial
years in education that really develop you for often the rest of your
educational experience--K-12 and higher education--we have a plan to
truly invest in every single person so that no one is paying more than
10 percent of their income for childcare.
It is not just that. We are funding K-12 schools. We are funding that
infrastructure for our schools. We are making sure that people who live
in rural areas have broadband so they can do the homework that you do
in a modern America.
At the higher education level, we have several innovative ideas
offered in our budget, from refinancing of student loans to the lowest
current available rate so that you are not paying some of these high
6.6 percent interest rates that don't even make sense in today's
economy, to providing for debt-free college; to make sure that if you
actually work and you want to do a workstudy job, you should be able to
leave a 4-year public institution debt free, and leave with a degree,
compared to the $30,000 plus on average that people are leaving with
now. We also tackle some of the ideas about free tuition in public
institutions. So we have got some real ideas from pre-K, to K-12, to
higher education.
We also make sure that we are addressing the costs of prescription
drugs because that is one of the drivers as we have this debate around
health care.
One of the reasons we have seen the spikes we have had is because,
quite honestly, a lot of prescription drug companies have charged
prices that are quite unreasonable, by any reasonable person's
standards. There is no reason why the same drug you pay for in Canada
or Ireland is substantially cheaper than it is in the United States.
We have measures to make sure that we can reduce the price of
prescription drugs here in this country and that people don't have to
make a decision between paying for their medicine or their groceries.
We also are looking at health care in another way. First of all, the
Affordable Care Act, as I think now many people across this country
understand and now support the concept--while they may not have
supported ObamaCare, they love the Affordable Care Act. Same thing,
folks.
What we are finding is, there are things we need to do to improve it.
And while we look at some of those, one of those is allowing States to
look at going to a single-payer system, and we provide the pathway to
do that, to reduce costs and increase coverage so that even more people
can have that.
We also expand access to mental health care--this is Mental Health
Awareness Month in this country, and we are making sure we are doing
that--and treatment for opioid addiction.
We also have a humane and comprehensive immigration reform proposal.
We are not talking about building walls at a time we should be talking
about building bridges. Instead, we are having sensible plans that
provide for full implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals program, the DACA program.
We preserve funding for sanctuary cities, and we prohibit any funding
whatsoever to go to President Trump's wall.
{time} 1800
Those are just a few of the things that we have in this budget. When
you contrast those deep cuts to programs that help middle class
families and those aspiring to be in the middle class across the
country, when you contrast it with the proactive positive alternatives
we have in this budget, I think people will see that there truly is a
significant difference and why we don't have to settle for something
that is out there that is not going to take care of the working
families in this country.
You know, a lot of people across the country talk to our Members of
Congress. We see these huge attendances right now at townhalls, and
every Member should be out having those townhalls. And what we are
hearing from people is that they are not happy with the proposals
offered by the Trump administration and by the Republicans in Congress,
the healthcare proposal that they put forward that we could be voting
on as early as tomorrow--the second attempt at this.
I will tell you, I have learned something very interesting. When
someone doesn't want to put their name on something, in this place
especially, it is usually not very good. I have found people really
like to put their name on things in this town.
It's funny that the Trump administration was calling their healthcare
bill RyanCare, Congress is calling it TrumpCare, people back home call
it I Don't Care.
In the end, what we are finding is this is a bill that is going to
cut access to 24 million people, give tax breaks of $600 billion-plus
to the wealthiest in this country, the top 1 and 2 percent, to
insurance companies, to Big Pharma, and other big entities. That is
often what it seems like it is really about.
It is going to increase fivefold. People will be paying five times as
much--older Americans--for their health care, and it cuts Medicaid to
so many people who need it in this country.
Don't forget, Medicaid is not just for people who are poor and trying
to get health care and trying to get work; it is also people with
disabilities, it is seniors in nursing homes.
It is, quite honestly, incomprehensible that the Republicans think it
is all right to cut those programs. That is their tax plan. But here is
the best part: they are making it now even worse. The words we are
hearing and that they are bragging about are amendments to make it so
that, State by State, they can turn down things like coverage for
preexisting conditions and turn down other essential health benefits,
things like prescription drug care, maternal care, emergency room
visits.
That is what health care is all about. If you gut everything out of
health care, all you have is a shell of what you can call health care
but doesn't actually provide any of the benefits.
They are doing this to bring in the Tea Party, the most conservative
element of their caucus that fundamentally doesn't believe in the
functioning of government. They are going to basically do that, make
sure government doesn't have any say in what health care is. You will
have no guarantees.
I guarantee with what they are doing--this is according to the
official nonpartisan estimates by the CBO, the Congressional Budget
Office, not our estimates--at least 24 million people will lose care
under the old proposal. Take the new proposal, and if you start adding
the States being able to make those decisions, more and more people
will lose access to their health care.
We will see what happens, whether or not they can get this done. I
think they are having a difficult time. When we had a little
conversation on the floor about it today, we noticed they didn't quite
have answers about when the bill will come up. We will see what does
happen with that.
But when you contrast that sort of a healthcare proposal with the
fundamentals that we have in the Progressive Caucus budget, you see a
stark difference. We take and expand upon the progress of the
Affordable Care Act that has allowed tens of millions of people to have
access.
When you look at the proposals that we put forward, there was an
Economic
[[Page H3319]]
Policy Institute article and a Washington Post article today that I
will include in the Record.
[From Economic Policy Institute, May 2, 2017]
The People's Budget, Not Trump's Budget, Will Help Working Americans
(By Mark Pocan)
After President Trump's first 100 days in office, it's
clear that his promises to help the working class were little
more than a campaign ploy. His dismantling of Obama-era
regulations like the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule and
deregulation of the financial industry reveal what he really
cares about--lining the pockets of America's ultra-rich.
Nothing demonstrates his disdain for working people more
than his budget proposal. In it, he cuts 31 percent of the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s budget, which ensures
people across the country have clean air and water, and 21
percent from Department of Labor programs that provide job
training to seniors and disadvantaged youth. Instead of
helping working people, Trump's budget imposes a hiring
freeze on crucial federal agencies and calls for many more
staff to be laid off from public sector jobs--the largest
reduction in the federal workforce since World War II.
The FY 2018 People's Budget: A Roadmap for the Resistance
by the Congressional Progressive Caucus stands in stark
contrast to Trump's budget. The People's Budget is a plan to
actually help working Americans who have felt left behind by
an economy rigged against them. Our budget is a roadmap for
the resistance, investing in the progressive priorities and
kitchen table issues that matter to real people:
infrastructure to create jobs and ensure public safety;
education to help our kids reach their full potential; and
sustainable energy to protect our precious environment.
Progressives in Congress fully want to make investments in
our future generations and protect programs that improve the
lives of people every day. We believe our budget should
strengthen Social Security and Medicare and invest in job
growth through infrastructure, education, and research and
development, while responsibly reducing our deficits and
cutting wasteful spending and redundant programs where they
exist.
As a business owner from Wisconsin and a long-time union
member, I understand what it means to take the economic high
road. It means ensuring that working people get a fair shake
at economic opportunities, that the wealthy pay their fair
share of taxes, and that we all do better, when we all do
better. I urge President Trump and Republicans in Congress to
seriously consider the proposals in the People's Budget so
that we can create a fairer economy.
____
[From the Washington Post]
This New Budget Points the Way Forward for Democrats
(By James Downie)
Out of power in Washington and around the country,
Democrats are struggling with how to move forward as a party.
Already the jockeying for the 2020 nomination has begun. What
policies the party chooses to champion will be essential to
how long or short the path will be to recovery. On Tuesday,
the Congressional Progressive Caucus--led by Reps. Raul M.
Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.)--released its
annual ``People's Budget'' for 2018. The CPC has produced a
budget for years, but with the party at a crossroads, this
edition may be the most important ever. Democrats should
recognize its ideas as an inspiration for the party going
forward.
The People's Budget starts by acknowledging a problem that
most leaders acknowledge but few have addressed: the
country's crumbling infrastructure. It provides $2 trillion
over 10 years to repair bridges and tunnels, revitalize mass
transit, replace contaminated water systems, rebuild public
schools and more. Furthermore, weak wage growth and other
indicators demonstrate that the economy remains short of
where it was before the Great Recession, and infrastructure
investment can provide badly needed jobs that will help
propel the economy to new heights. The Economic Policy
Institute projects that the People's Budget would add 2.4
million jobs and increase GDP by 2 percent in the near term.
The CPC's plan also addresses other crucial domestic
issues. While Republicans struggle to reconcile repealing
Obamacare with keeping health care affordable, the CPC puts
forward actual ideas to bring the cost of health care down:
The People's Budget introduces a public option--which would
lower premiums--and ends the ridiculous prohibition on
Medicare negotiating drug prices. The document also
recognizes the dangers of climate change, puffing a price on
carbon and eliminating tax breaks for the fossil fuel
industry. And it funds universal pre-kindergarten and
strengthens antitrust enforcement, fighting back against the
oligopolies in health care, cable and other industries that
are hurting Americans' pocketbooks.
Finally, the People's Budget invests in communities that
need critical help. It ends funding cuts to programs such as
Head Start and needs-based nutrition programs--cuts which
disproportionately hurt women and people of color. It invests
millions to help veterans find housing, jobs and health care.
And it commits money toward fighting homelessness and funding
affordable housing.
With all this spending, people may wonder what happens to
the national debt, but the People's Budget reduces the debt
as a percentage of GDP. In addition to the savings and the
carbon pricing mentioned above, the budget raises trillions
while making the tax system more fair. In addition to closing
numerous loopholes for businesses and high earners, there are
three major changes: restoring Clinton-era tax rates for
income above $250,000 and higher rates for income over $1
million, going after companies that defer tax by sending
income overseas, and reintroducing a financial transaction
tax (which the United States had from 1914 to 1966). All
told, these three reforms raise nearly $5 trillion over l0
years.
The People's Budget has no chance of becoming law in a GOP-
controlled government. But this budget is a marker for
Democrats aspiring to lead the party forward. The party is
increasingly seen as out of touch, even by its own
supporters. The People's Budget by contrast is built around
sound policies that are also politically popular. It reflects
Americans' long-standing desires for fixing the country's
infrastructure, strengthening entitlements, lowering the cost
of health care and making the wealthiest pay their fair
share. These ideas, if adopted, could be the foundation of a
rebuilt and resurgent party, and by embracing the goals of
the People's Budget, Democrats can reorient toward the
future.
Mr. POCAN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to read a little bit from The
Washington Post.
``This new budget points the way forward for Democrats.''
And what this specifically is addressing is the Progressive Caucus
budget. It is looking at it and saying:
``Democrats should recognize its ideas as an inspiration for the
party going forward.
``The People's Budget starts by acknowledging a problem that most
leaders acknowledge but few have addressed: the country's crumbling
infrastructure. It provides $2 trillion over 10 years to repair bridges
and tunnels, revitalize mass transit, replace contaminated water
systems, rebuild public schools and more.''
And that is what we talked about. Those are the very provisions that
we put forward in that $2 trillion investment in our infrastructure.
Mr. Speaker, I will go back to reading this.
``The Economic Policy Institute projects that the People's Budget
would add 2.4 million jobs and increase GDP by 2 percent in the near
term.''
That is 2.4 million people with a good family-supporting job while we
are rebuilding our Nation's infrastructure and increasing our Nation's
gross domestic product.
What does that mean?
I have been a small-business owner for 29 years. It is the rising
tide that lifts all boats. The more people that have money in their
pockets that can spend it, puts money right back into the economy.
If we make sure that more people are working and more people have a
family-supporting wage that they can buy a sofa, they can take their
family out to dinner or to a movie, that creates more economic
activity, and that creates even more jobs. That is exactly what we need
in this country.
That is, again, the Economic Policy Institute projecting what our
budget would do.
Mr. Speaker, let me go back to the document.
``While Republicans struggle to reconcile repealing ObamaCare with
keeping health care affordable, the CPC puts forward actual ideas to
bring the cost of health care down: The People's Budget introduces a
public option--which would lower premiums--and ends the ridiculous
prohibition on Medicare negotiating drug prices.''
Can you believe that?
We don't use our purchasing power right now to negotiate for cheaper
prices for prescription drugs. There is a reason why we pay sometimes 8
more, 20 times more, than other countries for the exact same drug. It
is because we are not allowed to use that purchasing power in a way
that will help create that economic savings.
Mr. Speaker, I will go back to the document.
``The document also recognizes the dangers of climate change, putting
a price on carbon and eliminating tax breaks for the fossil fuel
industry.''
Think about it. We still subsidize gas and oil, which is one of the
most profitable businesses on the planet, and we are subsidizing them
with tax subsidies. We get rid of those tax subsidies.
[[Page H3320]]
Mr. Speaker, I will go back to the document.
``And it funds universal pre-kindergarten and strengthens antitrust
enforcement, fighting back against the oligopolies in health care,
cable and other industries that are hurting Americans' pocketbooks.''
These are the things that we have in our Progressive Caucus budget to
make sure that real families, as you are sitting at your kitchen table
trying to decide if you can afford to pay your mortgage, send your kids
to college, take a family vacation this year, maybe have that one
luxury of a camper or a snowmobile, only if you live up north, or a
boat. Those are the things that I grew up with. I grew up in Kenosha,
Wisconsin, like I said, in a lower middle class family. That was the
existence of most everyone I knew. We are trying to make sure that that
can be the existence again for every single person.
While wages have been largely flat, the economy has come back. We
have just recently had a little bit of a bump in the last year or so of
the Obama Presidency. We need to do more for those families.
Mr. Speaker, let me go back to this document.
``With all this spending, people may wonder what happens to the
national debt. But the People's Budget reduces the debt as a percentage
of GDP. In addition to the savings and the carbon pricing mentioned
above, the budget raises trillions while making the tax system more
fair.''
This budget actually reduces overall debt by $4 trillion between now
and 2027. You don't see that out of almost any other budget proposed.
Yet our budget, while investing in America and investing in Americans,
we also help to turn back that crushing debt that this country has so
often had and that we need to address.
Mr. Speaker, let me just finish with reading a little more of this
document.
``The People's Budget, by contrast, is built around sound policies
that are also politically popular. It reflects Americans' longstanding
desires for fixing the country's infrastructure, strengthening
entitlements, lowering the cost of health care, and making the
wealthiest pay their fair share. These ideas, if adopted, could be the
foundation of a rebuilt and resurgent party, and by embracing the goals
of the People's Budget, the Democrats can reorient toward the future.''
Now, that is, again, an opinion out of The Washington Post today
about the budget we released yesterday.
I encourage people to go to the Progressive Caucus website to learn
more about this budget, to look at the work that the Economic Policy
Institute has done in working the numbers of this budget, and see what
the contrast can be.
You don't have to settle for second or third best. We don't just have
to make sure the top 1 and 2 percent have even more, and we hope that
some of that trickles down on the other 98 percent of us.
Instead, we can have a budget that invests in infrastructure and
creates good jobs, that invests in our public education system from
pre-K to higher education. We can have a budget that expands our
healthcare opportunities so that even more people can have affordable
health care and helps lower the cost of prescription drugs.
We can have a budget that does these things, and we have put that
forward in the People's Budget, which is the product of the Progressive
Caucus here in Congress.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the time to be on the floor of Congress to
present this on behalf, again, of the 74 Members of the Progressive
Caucus, the largest value-based caucus within the Democratic Party. We
are proud to present this budget. This should be coming to the floor as
we debate all budgets in the coming months. But we are proud to put
ours out first. Let's set the standard. Let's see how we can see what
the Republicans in this House will put forward, and we will see what
details the President puts forward.
I can guarantee no one will have more in place for the middle class
in this country and those aspiring to be in the middle class than the
People's Budget that is put forward by the Congressional Progressive
Caucus.
____________________