[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 25566]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1030
                         BUDGET RECONCILIATION

  (Ms. WOOLSEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, the Federal budget is about priorities. 
And with this budget, Republicans have their priorities all wrong. As 
an example, The Washington Post reports that young people from rural 
America are shouldering a disproportionate burden of the war in Iraq. 
Why? Rural Americans are increasingly willing to risk dying in this 
Iraqi quagmire to improve their chances of paying for college and 
getting a decent paying job.
  More than 44 percent of military recruits now come from rural areas. 
Only 14 percent come from American cities. Also, many military recruits 
are financially strapped. Nearly 50 percent of them come from lower-
middle-class to poor households. In 2004, nearly two-thirds of Army 
recruits came from counties in which median household income is below 
the U.S. median.
  Why do I tell you this? Because the response of this Republican-led 
Congress is to impose $14.5 billion in deeper budget cuts in student 
aid. How does that add up?

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