[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7938]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        DOING BETTER FOR AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, Congress is now working on a final budget, 
a $2.3 trillion budget with a $521 billion deficit. That deficit shows 
that it is impossible to finance three wars with three tax cuts and 
expect a different result. Never before has anybody waged a war with a 
tax cut. What the result is, we have three wars going on, and we have 
three tax cuts, and we have $521 billion in deficit.
  The budget proposed by the President and the Republican majority 
repeats the same mistakes that resulted in a jobless economy and a wage 
and benefit recession for Americans with the lowest growth in wages in 
the last 30 years.
  This budget, the $2.3 trillion budget, continues the same failed 
economic policies that have given us 43 million Americans without 
health insurance, 2 million more Americans who have moved into poverty 
out of the middle class, only a growth of 1 percent in wages in the 
last 3 years, 2.5 million Americans have lost their jobs, and nearly $1 
trillion worth of corporate and individual assets have been foreclosed 
on.
  During the 2000 Presidential campaign, President Bush declared he was 
against nation-building. Well, who knew that he was talking about 
America when he said he was opposed to nation building.
  This budget and the President's vision are really the tale of two 
budgets: one for America and one for Iraq. We have spent nearly $150 
billion in Iraq on the occupation and war, but without promising 
America the same future we are now committing to Iraq. I am not against 
rebuilding Iraq, we need to do that, but I am against taking dollars 
away and not investing in the education, health care, and environment 
here at home that we need to do for Americans.
  Take the area of health care. We have opened 150 clinics in Iraq and 
have provided 3 million Iraqis 100 percent prenatal and infant 
coverage. In America, 44 million Americans go without health care, 33 
million Americans work without health care, and 10 million children do 
not have health care.
  In the area of jobs, in Iraq there is universal job training. In 
America, in the President's budget job training programs have been 
either capped with no increase or zeroed out.
  In the area of veterans, in Iraq, $60 million was spent to train 
Iraqi veterans of former wars. In America, we are cutting veterans 
medical care by $257 million.
  In the field of education, in Iraq we have built 2,300 new schools, 
or rehabbed 2,300 schools. In America, Leave No Child Behind is 
underfinanced by $8 billion. In Iraq, the universities are receiving 
$99 million for higher education partnerships. In America, Perkins 
loans have been cut by $99 million and Pell grants have been frozen for 
4 years in a row while college costs have gone up 10 percent a year.
  In the area of law enforcement, $500 million is being spent in Iraq 
for a new police force. In the United States under the President's 
budget, the police program, the COPS Program, is being cut by $659 
million.
  In the area of housing, in Iraq we are spending $470 million for 
public housing. In America, we have cut $791 from public housing 
homeownership.
  In the area of the environment, we are paying $3.6 billion for new 
water treatment facilities in Iraq. In America, $500 million has been 
cut for water treatment and our drinking water here in the United 
States.
  As President Bush seeks reelection, think of this: after his vision 
for Iraq and what is happening here at home and our own economy, he can 
say he kept his commitments against nation-building. The problem is, it 
is in America that he is opposed to nation-building.
  We need to invest here at home. We cannot have the tale of two 
budgets; the tale of two values; the tale of two sets of books, one for 
Iraq and one for America. Yet those are the wrong values for here at 
home.
  The American people are the most generous people in the world. They 
have committed to doing something in Iraq. They have done it over the 
years in Germany and Japan after World War II. We did it by welcoming 
other Eastern European nations into NATO and into the EU, leading that 
effort.
  We will continue to be the most generous people in the world, but we 
will not do it at the expense of the future of our children. We can do 
better. We do not need to make this an either/or choice. But we have an 
economic vision and balance that is put in place in the budget of this 
President and economic priorities and values that have literally left 
Americans today with less opportunities in education, less 
opportunities for health care.
  Think of this: today, health care costs cost $9,000 for a family of 
four, compared to $6,500 just 3 years ago. It has gone up 30 percent. 
College costs have gone up 10 percent, and yet we have not increased 
our benefits.
  We can do better for the American people. We need to do better.

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