[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 15]
[House]
[Pages 20232-20233]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             FORGOTTEN POOR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, for too long we have borne witness to 
relentless attacks on America's poor and working families. Abandoned by 
corporate America, betrayed by the political right, largely ignored by 
the mainstream media, our Nation's poor have become little more than an 
afterthought, most recently evidenced by what we as a Nation saw in New 
Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
  While productivity and profit in America are up, wages are falling, 
and poverty is increasing. Since 1973, not coincidentally the year this 
country went from a trade surplus to a trade deficit, since 1973 the 
average worker has seen his or her wages go up about 10 percent in real 
dollars, while productivity has increased to almost 90 percent.
  It used to be in this country since World War II that when 
productivity went up that workers' wages went up roughly the same 
amount, that workers shared in the wealth that they created for their 
employer.

                              {time}  1600

  Those days, unfortunately, have passed.
  An August census report revealed that in the United States the number 
of uninsured Americans has increased dramatically. In the last 5 years, 
the total number of Americans with employer-sponsored health coverage 
has fallen by almost 4 million. Because 1.1 million Americans dropped 
into poverty in 2004, almost 2 million more Americans enrolled in 
Medicaid that year; and yet in the face of growing poverty, the rising 
number of uninsured Americans, this administration and Republican 
leadership are demanding that we cut $10 billion from Medicaid.
  Just think about that again. More and more people need Medicaid, not 
just because of Katrina, but because of layoffs, because of plant 
closings, because more and more employers are dropping their coverage. 
More people need Medicaid. More people need health care because they 
have lost it. The congressional response is cutting Medicaid by $10 
billion in order to continue to give even more tax cuts to the 
wealthiest 1 percent of people in this country. That is a choice this 
Congress is about to make, and it is scandalous.
  Household incomes fell for the fourth year in a row in 2004, 
something we had not seen in this country perhaps ever, at least since 
the Depression.
  The reality is that every segment of American society, except for the 
very wealthy, has seen its income decline under this administration. 
Men working full-time have seen their earnings drop below what they 
earned 6 years ago. Women working full-time have seen their annual 
incomes decrease also. America's men and women working full-time are 
the reason our Nation's productivity is up; and yet they are earning 
less every year.
  The number of people living in poverty increased in 2004 by 1.1 
million people. Eight million children are uninsured. Thirteen million 
children live in poverty. The infant mortality rate is rising in the 
U.S. The infant mortality rate in Washington, D.C., is double that of 
the infant mortality rate in Beijing. This is the first year infant 
mortality has increased in this country since 1958.
  A U.N. report on global equality sheds light on the shadows of this 
administration's policies. This report

[[Page 20233]]

said there are parts of the United States that are as poor as the Third 
World. One nation cannot survive as a thriving democracy, certainly our 
Nation cannot, under policies that rely on trickle-down economic 
theories.
  The aftermath of Katrina, when government should be at its most 
proactive to ensure the return of a thriving economy, this 
administration is working actively to lower wages in that region. An 
executive order handed down by President Bush will allow companies that 
win Federal contracts, companies that are the President's contributors, 
Halliburton, which is still paying Vice President Cheney retirement 
benefits of $3,000 a week, companies like that, while those companies 
are rebuilding, the President's executive order allows them to pay 
lower prevailing wages indefinitely.
  The community hit hardest by Katrina is the working poor. These men 
and women will literally do the heavy lifting in rebuilding the region. 
Yet the President is saying cut their wages. Cheating workers out of 
fair wages robs them of the ability to take ownership in their own 
community. One must ask why the President could depress wages for a 
community in crisis. It makes no sense.
  Mr. Speaker, these issues represent a divide in government policy, a 
betrayal of values that I thought Americans hold dear, that most of us 
do. These issues represent a moral obligation in the fight for dignity 
of every American.

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