[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15178]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 THE SHAMBLES OF THE LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to 
recap what we have done today and what we are doing in this House. 
There are certain protocols that prohibit us from saying things like 
wake up, America, listen to the debates of this House, and to the 
concerns of this Nation. This is the holiday time, the time that 
schools are getting out, families are coming together for vacations. So 
this is a good time for the smoke and mirrors legislation of this body, 
dominated by those who have no simple or at least appreciation for the 
enormous task that we have in putting this Nation back together again.
  Let me simply recount, Mr. Speaker, the journey that we are taking. 
We realize that 21 days this Nation was at war, and that we were able 
to come under budget for a war that many disagreed with but not with 
the valiant work of our young people. Unfortunately, as we projected 
about the needs of this Nation and a war with Iraq, we failed to take 
into consideration the aftermath, the tragedy of 51 young men and 
valiant heroes that have lost their lives since the ending of this war, 
the cost of maintaining 160,000-plus soldiers on the front lines, the 
$1 billion a month that we are spending in Afghanistan in the war 
against terrorism, the large number of dollars that are necessary and 
not yet expended with respect to homeland security.
  As a member of the Select Committee on Homeland Security, I realize 
that many of our local governments are asking and pleading for dollars 
for their first responders.
  In the backdrop of that, we have a growing deficit and an increasing 
unemployment. College graduates are coming out with wonderful diplomas 
and great smiles of admiration by their family, and yet they can find 
no work.
  This body of course is now trying to grapple with the issue of a 
guaranteed Medicare prescription drug benefit for the seniors that we 
promised them for now 8 years, and what are we giving to them? A mere 
$400 billion. It sounds like a big number, but we are going to leave 
the seniors holding the bag by, in actuality, having a gap. That means 
rather than getting a guaranteed prescription drug benefit in Medicare, 
we are going to tell seniors to go out and be fishers of men, fishers 
of HMOs, fishers of low-cost drugs. This is what we are going to give 
them. They have to go out and shop for HMOs that will give them a drug 
benefit, and then if they spend up to $2,000, forget about it.
  They have got to pay for it the rest of it until they hit $5,000. 
Some seniors will fall through the cracks, and maybe some will lose 
their lives because of their inability to get the prescription drugs. 
We can spend a whole bunch of money on doing things that are really not 
necessary, $1 trillion tax cut to the likes of Warren Buffett, who said 
that he is paying less taxes than his receptionist, one of the richest 
men in the world. We gave a big tax cut with a big deficit, and now we 
cannot give our seniors a protection that we have been pleading for for 
8 years.
  We now have come to the floor of the House and the eloquent statesmen 
who were making these points about the taxpayer bill that we just 
passed, or that we will vote on, and I wish all of us could have voted 
on it in a bipartisan way, the eloquence of saying we are giving a tax 
credit, but what they are doing is they are eliminating the opportunity 
for some laid-off workers to get health care by the State by passing 
this bill. So they are undermining the very needs of those who are in 
most need, working men and women.
  Right now we have been trying to pass a child tax credit for those 
making between $11,000 and $26,000. Those are our young men and women 
in the United States military. They make $1,000 a month. Their families 
are back home. We are trying to give them a tax credit. What is 
happening? Republican friends want to give an $82 billion tax giveaway, 
stalling the bill so we cannot get the bill to the President's desk. 
The President said he would sign the Senate bill, the same bill we want 
to pass. Within hours, that bill could be signed right now at the 
picnic that they are getting ready to have. That bill could be signed, 
and we would be providing a tax cut to the young men and women, 
families that are overseas, military men and women making $1,000 a 
month.
  Mr. Speaker, I have got to say that we have got to fix the shambles 
of the legislative agenda, begin to stand up and speak for the American 
people who are in need, and it is time for the American people to wake 
up and understand what is occurring on the floor of the House.

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