[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 12, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1770-S1771]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Budget Proposal

  Madam President, yesterday the Trump administration released its 
annual budget. These Trump budget requests have become so outlandish, 
so removed from reality, that even Republicans in Congress can't work 
with that budget and can't treat them seriously. They are essentially 
statements of principle from an administration that doesn't care about 
governing. What does it care about? What are its priorities? That is 
what they talked about because I bet they know not a single Republican 
would vote for the budget.
  We looked at the budget and what it would mean for my home State of 
New York. The President's budget would cut millions of dollars from the 
Department of Justice programs that hire police officers, provide their 
equipment, and combat the opioid epidemic. The budget would cut 
millions from New York's educational programs that would help schools 
throughout our State, including those schools on military bases. It 
would hurt afterschool programs and STEM initiatives teaching our young 
people about science and math. The cuts to NIH would devastate New 
York's hospitals, particularly rural hospitals, and would cut back on 
our great medical research. We are all living longer and healthier, in 
part, because of the medical research done by NIH. Hardly anyone wants 
to cut that. The President did.
  The cuts to Medicaid would affect 6.5 million New Yorkers who rely on 
it. I think that story can be repeated for just about every State. New 
York is a very diverse State, with large urban, rural, and suburban 
populations, and every one of them is hurt across the board from safety 
and security to education and healthcare, to infrastructure and 
economic development. The Trump budget would be a gut punch to New 
York's middle class. The same is true for the Nation.

[[Page S1771]]

  Setting aside, for the moment, the humanity of these cuts, this 
budget reveals the depth of President Trump's hypocrisy on several of 
his signature issues. Donald Trump campaigned for President promising 
not to cut Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security. In 2015, he tweeted:

       I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state 
     there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & 
     Medicaid. Huckabee copied me.

  Let's look at President Trump's budget. It cuts Medicare by $845 
billion, cuts Medicaid by $1.5 trillion. I understand the challenges of 
the office sometimes prevent Presidents from achieving precisely what 
they campaigned on, but this is literally the opposite of what Donald 
Trump said in his campaign. No one is forcing his hand. He is proposing 
this.
  Candidate Trump? No cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. President Trump? 
Cut those promises by more than $2 trillion.
  This budget says: ``Promises kept.'' Balderdash--balderdash--when it 
comes to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Promises kept? Donald 
Trump said he wouldn't cut Medicare or Medicaid. The budget slashes 
them brutally. How can they dare say ``promises kept'' on probably the 
most significant domestic-side programs we have when they slash them?
  You don't even need a long memory to find out the hypocrisy of the 
President in this budget. Only a few months ago, the President spoke to 
the American Farm Bureau, promising a bright future for American 
farmers. Yet his administration proposed cutting the Department of 
Agriculture in the midst of implementing a new farm bill by 15 percent.
  In his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Trump 
called education the ``civil rights of our time.'' Yesterday, he 
proposed cutting the Department of Education by 12 percent. Promises 
kept? Balderdash.
  One of the few bipartisan moments during the President's most recent 
State of the Union was when he pledged to ``defeat AIDS in America and 
beyond.'' The President's budget, however, cuts the program that seeks 
to eliminate AIDS around the globe by 22 percent. Promises kept? 
Balderdash.
  Of course, the President famously promised Mexico would pay for the 
border wall. His budget asks the American taxpayers to shell out $8.6 
billion for the wall. Promises kept? Balderdash.
  On the cover of the President's budget are emblazoned the words 
``Promises Kept.'' He must really believe no one will read beyond the 
cover page because this budget document is a list of broken promises by 
President Trump, one after the other. What he says to the public and 
what he puts out in his budget are in two different worlds. Promises 
kept? He said he wouldn't cut Medicare or Medicaid. He cuts them. 
Promises kept? He said he would bolster our farmers. He cuts the farm 
bill 15 percent. Promises kept? Mexico will pay for the wall--not in 
this budget. The American taxpayers pay for it.
  It is just pathetic that in this world in which we live, a President 
can be so hypocritical and contradictory by saying one thing and then 
having his budget do the exact opposite.
  I have a challenge to my friend Leader McConnell, another challenge, 
because he seems to duck about every issue we have. Put President 
Trump's budget on the floor of the Senate. You are putting the Green 
New Deal on the floor of the Senate. Put this budget on the floor of 
the Senate. Let's see if a single Republican votes for it.