[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 25020]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    FEDERAL SPENDING AND THE DEFICIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Earlier, a gentleman from California rose to talk about 
how the economy was booming and how well the American people are doing 
with job creation and new prosperity. Unfortunately, it does not look 
like that for most people in my district. In fact, it really is not 
that way for most people in America. The combination of misplaced 
priorities and trade policies that export jobs and depress wages in 
this country have hurt Americans. In fact, last year, according to the 
IRS, 99 percent of Americans, all those who earn less than $350,000 a 
year, saw a decline in their real income. But I think the gentleman 
from California and the Republican leadership and the White House are 
looking at that 1 percent, who are doing phenomenally well. The tax 
cuts have been an incredible boon, over $120,000 per year in tax cuts 
for families who earn over $1.3 million a year. They are doing just 
great. Unfortunately, we are borrowing the money to give them the tax 
cuts and handing the bill to working families and their kids and their 
grandkids as we continue to reduce the tax burden on corporations and 
the wealthy.
  He said, ``Boy, the economy is booming.'' That is kind of 
interesting. Over the last 17 quarters, the GDP has grown at 2.8 
percent, right around the rate of inflation, but in the last six 
business cycles, it grew at a rate of 40 percent more than that during 
recovery periods. He bragged about job growth. The United States only 
has 1.3 percent job growth, much of it in the public sector, under the 
watch of this administration, since March 2001, whereas in previous 
business cycles, job growth was closer to 9 percent over the same 
period, six times the rate of growth. Private sector job growth is only 
up 0.8 percent. Wage and salary income has also grown anemically. As I 
said earlier, 99 percent of families and working people in America saw 
their real incomes decline last year. One percent, $300,000 to $1.3 
million, did pretty well. But the people over $1.3 million, they did 
phenomenally well.
  So what is the answer of the Republicans this week? Cut benefits that 
might flow to that 99 percent of the people. Student loans for kids 
trying to learn and do better and have a better ability to earn in 
their adult lives and become more productive Americans, $14.3 billion 
in cuts for student loans, double the origination fee for student 
loans. That is a cut that needs to be made according to the Republican 
majority.
  And then there are the cuts in long-term care, foster care. The 
family values side of the aisle over there wants to cut long-term care 
for struggling seniors and their families and foster care. That is 
extraordinary. And then, of course, they want to slash Medicaid. What 
they do not tell you is they are dumping that burden on our States who 
are already struggling. They are going to add to the 45 million people 
who are uninsured for health care in the United States of America 
through those cuts. But they say those cuts must be made. Why? Because 
they have become suddenly fiscally responsible after a 62 percent 
increase in the debt during the Bush administration and the Republican 
Congress over the last 5 years? No. Because they want to make room for 
more tax cuts because, as we heard earlier, trickledown is working 
great. Those people who earn $1.3 million with that extra 130,000 bucks 
a year in tax cuts, which are added to the deficit which all the rest 
of us will have to pay for, they are spending some of that money, some 
of it even in the United States of America. Sometimes they are hiring 
people to cut their lawns, or wash their boats. Yachts. They need that 
money. They need it more than the kid who wants to get a college 
education. They need it more than the family that is struggling to 
figure out how they are going to pay for long-term care for their 
seniors. They need it more than the kids who need foster care in this 
country. Those rich people need it more because they will trickle it 
down upon the rest of us.
  So that is the game they are playing this week. They are going to 
pretend they are making tough cuts that need to be made. They won't 
take on the tough cuts. You want to talk about tough cuts? Let's do 
away with the stupid idea of going back to the Moon by borrowing $100 
billion. We have already been there. Why do we want to borrow $100 
billion to go to the Moon? How about Star Wars? The general in charge 
says, hey, it has better than a zero percent chance of working if 
anybody ever shoots a missile at us. Better than a zero percent chance 
at a cost of $100 billion, $10 billion a year ongoing. Farm subsidies 
for farmers who earn over $100,000 a year on corporate farms, we could 
save billions there. Not to mention if we just reinstated the rate of 
taxation for people who earn over $300,000 a year that they paid during 
the booming nineties, we would save $300 billion over the next 5 years. 
There is a better way to run this country and we are not hearing it 
from them.

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