[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2802]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                 THE DEVIL IS OFTENTIMES IN THE DETAILS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, last week I sat in the Chambers, 
along with all of the rest of us, and listened to a great speech. As a 
matter of fact, as the President outlined his plans for the coming 4 
years, talked about his budget for the next year, there was a great 
deal of applause. I applauded, along with everybody else; perhaps not 
as much as some and perhaps more than others. All the while I was 
applauding, I was being reminded of something that my mother used to 
tell us, and that is the devil is oftentimes in the details. I knew 
that we were not getting very many details and I did not know that we 
would find the devil.
  Then after I left and went home and started to read the speech and 
then the next day when the budget was released, I started looking at 
the things that the President did not tell us. President Bush did not 
tell us that 42.6 percent of his tax cut proposal would benefit the top 
1 percent of our population or that 59.4 percent would benefit the top 
10 percent and only 12.6 percent would go to the lowest 60 percent of 
the taxpayers.
  It seems to me that this leaves a lot of children and families 
behind. As a matter of fact, it leaves them out altogether. If the 
$25,000 a year waitress that President Bush talked about has two 
children and child-care expenses of $200 a month, she does not pay any 
Federal income tax; therefore, would get nothing from the Bush 
proposal. Yet she has to continue to pay her payroll taxes like 
everybody else.
  The budget that the President has released raised some other issues 
and concerns for me. This budget raises a number of policy issues 
because it is based on a $2 trillion surplus projection for the next 10 
years, which leaves no money to address future needs for prescription 
drug benefits, establishing Social Security and Medicare reforms, 
improving the education of our children and continuation of reducing 
the national debt.
  The President's tax cut proposals would provide no benefit to nearly 
one out of every three families. Then as I started to look at the 
budget, and I looked at the small business budget which fuels the 
economy, over the last decade we have experienced a tremendous growth, 
unprecedented in our history, and yet the President announced a budget 
that cuts the Small Business Administration's budget from $900 million 
to $540 million. This represents a 43 percent cut.
  The Bush plan also imposes $12 million in new fees on small 
businesses that use small business development centers, which provide 
management and technical assistance to current and prospective small 
business owners.
  We talked a great deal about new markets and venture capital. The 
President's budget proposes no funding for these programs. The 7A 
General Business Loan Program, the President's budget cuts it by $4.3 
billion.
  After looking at all of these cuts that I did not hear about when the 
speech was given, or when we knew that a budget was coming, now I know 
that the budget is risky; it is unfair to working families.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I am afraid that the more we look at the details, 
the more we are going to find the devil. I would just hope that the 
budget will end up not a devilish budget but a budget that really 
reflects the needs, hopes and aspirations of all the American people.

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