[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 18]
[House]
[Pages 24898-24899]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, well, next week the Republicans have 
discovered that we are awash in a sea of red ink, supposedly. Under the 
Bush watch, with the Republicans in charge of both Houses of Congress, 
the national debt has increased by 62 percent, to $8 trillion in 5 
short years, quite an accomplishment. We are borrowing $1.3 billion a 
day to run the government. If we eliminated everything the government 
does except for homeland security and defense, we would still have a 
deficit.

                              {time}  1130

  They say they are going to make some infinitesimal cuts and little 
phony baloney and that is fiscal responsibility. Let us talk about what 
they are proposing to cut.
  Well, the biggest whack they are taking is at students. They do not 
know any students who have to borrow money or get scholarships to go to 
school. Why, the children of the rich, they just write out a check and 
pay cash; they are legacy students at the best schools. $14.3 billion 
of additional costs on students who want to borrow a little money to 
get a better education and get ahead, doubling the origination fee, 
costing them as much as $6,000 over the life of their loans.
  Kids are graduating with mountains of debt. That is a responsible 
cut, according to the Republicans. Well then

[[Page 24899]]

there are those little guys in the elementary and secondary schools who 
are eating too much. They are eating too much. They are going to cut 
back on the school nutrition program and the breakfast program and the 
eligibility of poor kids to eat.
  They are just eating too much. They do not know anybody who is hungry 
in this country. And then the phony baloney. I am on the Resources 
Committee. They are assuming over $3 billion for leasing the Alaska 
National Wildlife Refuge, 50 times as much per acre as the Naval 
Petroleum Reserve was just leased for, where there is known oil, in an 
area where there is no known oil.
  So we got phony baloney and mean spirited cuts. Now, why? Are they 
really fiscally responsible? Well, this would be a big, you know, 
almost one-tenth of 1 percent of the projected deficit over the next 5 
years. I guess that is better than nothing. Except that there are ways 
to make much bigger cuts. We could roll back the 2001-2003 tax cuts for 
the wealthiest 1 percent, those who earn over $350,000 a year. That 
would bring in $327 billion, six times what they are pretending to save 
here.
  We could do away with some offshore tax shelters, $65 billion more 
than what they are talking about here. We could cancel the President's 
mission to Mars. That is $1 trillion over the next 20 years, $100 
billion to go back to the Moon again. That would save twice as much 
money. No, those things go after the powerful special interests or the 
contributor class, and God forbid they should take them on.
  But they can get the little kids in the schools and take the food off 
their plates. They can go off the students struggling to rise up or 
stay in the middle class and double their origination fees for their 
loans.
  But they will not make these kinds of real cuts, ones that would hit 
at those who earn over $300,000 a year or hit at the powerful special 
interests who are, you know, who are involved in the Federal 
contracting with NASA.
  And then there is waste and abuse. What about the waste and abuse? 
Apparently, the Bush administration, Brownie is still writing, Brownie, 
you are doing a heck of a job. He is still on the Federal payroll for 
$150,000, and he is letting out contracts, such as a contract, put a 
blue tarp on a roof. A lot of people in Oregon do that when they find 
out they got a leak when it starts to rain, they go up, climb up on the 
roof, put up a tarp. The tarp costs $8.
  Well, the Federal Government is paying a contractor $2,500 to put 
blue tarps per roof down there in the Southeast, yet another great job 
by heck-of-a-job Brownie, who is still pulling down $150,000 a year 
from the Federal taxpayers.
  So there is a little waste, fraud, and abuse that they can go after. 
No. But these are the big contractors, Fluor and others, who are 
benefiting and profiting immensely from gouging the Federal taxpayer.
  So we should have real fiscal responsibility; but they have no sense 
of it, because the real money goes to the powerful and the special 
interests in this country. They are the ones looting the Federal 
Treasury, and they have the gall to come to the floor of the House and 
say it is the Democrats. You have been in charge for 5 years. Five 
years. The Presidency, the House, and the Senate for almost that whole 
time, and you have increased the debt by 62 percent.
  You have done nothing about the waste, fraud and abuse. In fact, it 
has gotten worse on your watch, and now you want to stick it to the 
kids who want to get an education and to hungry children and primary 
and secondary schools and pretend you are going to sell leases for a 
heck of a lot more than you will.
  You should be ashamed. The sea of red ink spreads, and it grows 
deeper. Most Americans are drowning, but the yachts of the wealthy are 
floating high.

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