[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 23112-23113]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       BUILDING A STRONG 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, since the year 2000 this Congress has 
racked up more than $3 trillion in new debt. How did that happen? They 
tried to do what no other President has tried to do and no other 
Congress, to fund two wars with four tax cuts.
  This Congress has served as an ATM to special interests, showering 
them with billions in tax breaks and handouts. Suddenly our Republican 
friends have become born-again budget hawks. In fact, tomorrow we may 
have to vote on a resolution to slash more than $50 billion from 
education, health care, nutritional investments important to millions 
of Americans and families and their future. All for what? So we can 
fund $70 billion in tax cuts just for the wealthy Americans.
  That is what this budget package is, $70 billion in tax cuts. At the 
same time that these so-called new-born fiscal conservatives are 
complaining about the deficit, they are going to push through yet 
another round of tax cuts on top, close to $20 billion added to our 
deficit.
  I ask my colleagues, are these the choices the American people asked 
us to do? To date, the American taxpayer has funded $445 billion in the 
effort in Iraq, $20 billion going to rebuild Iraq. We have built and 
renovated 110 primary health care centers in Iraq, vaccinated 3.2 
million Iraqi children; all the while here in the United States the 
Republican budget has cut $10 billion from Medicaid. We have also cut 
community health care clinics.
  In Iraq we have rehabilitated 2,700 schools, trained 36,000 secondary 
education school teachers. What is their budget doing for America? They 
cut $806 million from America's public schools, Leave No Child Behind. 
They have also proposed nearly $9 billion in cuts to college student 
aid. We funded nearly 3,100 community development projects in Iraq 
alone. Yet the President's budget is cutting the community development 
grants here for the United States by $250 million.
  The Corps of Engineers in the United States has been cut by over $300 
million. Yet we built a new light rail system in Iraq. We have also 
rebuilt their dam with a levee in it. All the while their budget cuts 
from America's future and American families' future while literally 
loading up close to $445 billion for the effort in Iraq, of which $20 
billion goes to rebuilding their schools, their health care, their 
nutritional programs, things that we are cutting from the United States 
and from American families.
  Every President going to war has thought about America's future. 
During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln thought of the Land Grant College 
system. President Roosevelt in the middle of the World War II thought 
of the G.I. Bill. President Eisenhower at the tail end of the Korean 
War built the interstate highway system for the United States. During 
the height of the Cold War and Vietnam War, President Kennedy 
envisioned a man on the Moon.
  What does this President propose? Eliminating Amtrak, cutting $9 
billion from student aid, and cutting veterans benefits. Why? Because 
he has tried to do something that no other President has thought of 
doing, which is to cut taxes in the middle of two wars. Where has it 
left America? $3 trillion in debt, cuts in our future for American 
families.

[[Page 23113]]

  Now Americans are faced not only with these cuts in its investments. 
Gas prices are nearly $3 a gallon, home heating costs are up by 50 
percent this winter, inflation has increased at the fastest rate in 15 
years, hundreds and thousands have lost everything in the gulf coast, 
and our brave men and women are fighting and dying in Iraq with no end 
in sight.
  Yet what are we proposing to America? Cuts in their educational 
investments, cuts in health care investments, cuts in nutritional 
investments. All the while we are making those same types of 
investments in Iraq. That is not the choice the American people want.
  I have no problem if we are going to make a commitment to Iraq and 
Iraq's future and the future of their children. I have a problem when 
we are not going to leave America stronger, but weaker, at the end of 
that effort, and we are not willing to make that same investment in 
American children's future.
  We cannot afford those types of choices. Those are the false choices. 
All the while what we are trying to do is wall off and protect tax cuts 
for the wealthiest 1 percent, people making $300,000 a year, while the 
rest of America gets cuts in Amtrak, student aid, nutritional programs, 
veterans get cut from their health care benefits. That is not what the 
American people think of as an investment in their future. It is 
clearly not the one you are willing to make in Iraq where we now have a 
$445 billion bill due to the American people. It will get close to $600 
billion before it is all over. The American people are going to be 
asked to pay for it.
  How are they going to pay for it? With cuts in their education 
college loans, cuts in their communities' health care clinics, cuts in 
Medicaid, cuts in Medicare, cuts in their programs that have guaranteed 
them a middle-class future. We should find ways to balance the budget, 
but we should not do it on the backs of our children.
  The American people expect their leaders to make the right choices. 
Mr. Speaker, it is time Congress changes its tune. We can do better. 
Building a strong America begins by building a good America here at 
home.

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