[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 20104]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          PARITY FOR THE POOR

  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, for too long we have borne witness to 
relentless attacks on America's poor and working families. We saw those 
divisions up close in the aftermath of Katrina as the poor and 
especially the working poor were left behind. Abandoned by corporate 
America, betrayed by the political right, largely ignored by the 
mainstream media, our Nation's poor, again especially the working poor, 
the people that clean hotel rooms, the people who provide security at 
businesses, the people in this country who are largely not seen and not 
much thought about, have become little more than an afterthought. While 
productivity and profit in America are up, wages are falling and 
poverty is increasing. The average working American over the last 30 
years has seen her or his income go up 10 percent, yet their 
productivity has increased 80 percent. It used to be in our Nation if 
productivity went up, then wages have gone up, but there is now a 
disconnect. In other words, workers who create wealth for their 
employers, workers who create profits for their employers, are simply 
not sharing in the wealth and the profits that they have created.
  An August U.S. census report revealed that in the United States, the 
number of uninsured Americans increased. Fewer than 60 percent of 
employers now offer health insurance. Since 2000, the total number of 
Americans with employer-sponsored coverage has declined by 3.7 million 
people. Only because of Medicaid, a program that is a government 
insurance program, has the number of uninsured not dropped even more 
precipitously. Yet in the face of growing poverty, in the rising number 
of uninsured Americans, in the disaster that we saw from Katrina, this 
administration and the leaders of this Congress are demanding that we 
cut Medicaid by $10 billion. They want to cut Medicaid by $10 billion 
so they can give greater tax cuts to the wealthiest 1 percent of people 
in this society. Think of that choice. As the poor were left behind and 
the working poor were left behind in Katrina, this government, the 
President and the leaders in this House, want to do more tax cuts for 
the wealthiest 1 percent and they want to cut Medicaid $10 billion.
  Household incomes fell for the fourth year in a row in 2004. The 
reality is that every segment of American society has seen their income 
decline except for the wealthy under this administration. Men working 
full time have seen their earnings drop below what they earned 6 years 
ago, even though they are more productive, even though profits are up. 
Women working full time have also seen their annual incomes decrease. 
The media love to tell us, most of whom are pretty well paid, and 
politicians in Washington love to tell the public, hey, the economy is 
going great. It is for a lot of us, but overall wages have declined and 
poverty has gone up. Profits may be up for corporations and on a large 
scale the economy may look good, but to most people in this country the 
economy is not looking so good. America's men and women working full 
time are the reason that productivity is up, are the reason that 
profits are up, but they are simply not sharing in the wealth that they 
have created.
  The number of people living in poverty in America increased over 1 
million people in 2004 alone. Eight million children are uninsured. 
Thirteen million children live in poverty. The infant mortality rate in 
Washington D.C. is twice as high as the infant mortality rate in 
Beijing. How shameful is that? The infant mortality rate in this 
country went up for the first time since 1958. How shameful is that? A 
U.N. report on global equality sheds light on the shadows of this 
administration's policies. Parts of the United States are as poor as 
the Third World. Our Nation cannot survive as a thriving democracy 
under policies that rely on trickledown economics. Poverty and social 
breakdown are core components of the global security threat. We cannot 
really be secure in this country until our people are secure. It is not 
just about a military. It is also about economic security for the 
people that clean our hotel rooms, that serve us food, that provide our 
security, that work at minimum wage jobs.
  Economic growth alone is not enough to reduce poverty, as long as we 
deny our most vulnerable citizens access to health care, access to 
education, and an opportunity to share in the wealth that they create. 
These issues represent a divide in government priorities and values 
that extend far beyond the halls of Congress. These issues represent a 
moral obligation in a fight for the dignity of every American.

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