[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 198 (Tuesday, December 5, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H9623-H9624]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           RETREATING AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, it is sad to watch the Trump 
administration leading America in retreat, withdrawing positions of 
international leadership, hollowing out the State Department, crippling 
us for years to come.
  Last night, there was an example of that retreat right here on the 
floor of the House as our Republican friends were unable to address 
their plan for raising taxes for Americans in every State by 
restricting their ability to deduct State and local taxes. Why force 
millions of Americans to pay taxes on taxes?
  Why, Mr. Speaker, is there a proposal to destabilize insurance rates 
across America, leading to 10 percent premium increases year after 
year, and to have up to 13 million additional uninsured Americans over 
the course of the next 10 years?
  They have no answer as to why to mortgage our children's future for 
greater benefits for the richest and most privileged Americans. When 
corporations are recording record-high profits and have trillions of 
dollars of

[[Page H9624]]

profits overseas, why are we borrowing to provide more benefits to the 
largest corporations and wealthiest people while we are ignoring the 
people who visit our offices every day seeking not a sympathetic ear, 
but action, for example, action on the opioid crisis and the epidemic 
of opioid deaths claiming 64,000 Americans last year?

  Our former colleague, Patrick Kennedy, whose advocacy is informed by 
his own struggle to overcome opioid addiction, will testify today in 
the other body that we could easily productively spend up to $200 
billion more dealing with the crisis, helping people with recovery. The 
Senate is proposing to increase one ten-thousandth of that amount--not 
$200 billion, but $20 million--to deal with this crisis because we 
don't have the money, yet we are borrowing $1.5 trillion to give 
additional tax benefits to those who need them the least.
  We are not being able to adequately help our veterans, whose needs 
are clear to anybody who visits the Veterans Administration hospital in 
their State, or provide investments in roads and bridges and transit or 
in water and sewer that would strengthen every community, make it safer 
and business more competitive.
  Good policy and effective investment is possible if we are not 
mortgaging our children's future, borrowing vast sums of money to 
lavish more tax reductions on people who don't need it, while ignoring 
the needs of people who do, who visit offices every day here on Capitol 
Hill.
  America does not have to be in retreat, claiming poverty, that we are 
helpless to meet the needs of the American people, if Congress finds 
the courage and the will to do its job.

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