[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18541-18542]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 SUPPORTING A NEW DIRECTION FOR AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Bishop) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BISHOP of New York. Mr. Speaker, let me start by thanking the 
gentleman from Alabama for organizing this series of 5-minute 
statements and for his leadership on this issue.
  Two weeks short of the end of the fiscal year of 2006 and with no 
budget in place for fiscal 2007, I commend my distinguished Democratic 
colleagues on the Budget Committee for taking this time to call 
America's attention to the fiscal challenges resulting from the 
Republicans' misguided policies and the wrong choices they have made 
for our economy. Misplaced spending priorities and bad decisions have 
consequences. They are leading us further down the path to fiscal ruin 
and expanding the wedge between middle-class families and the 
superwealthy.
  I am proud to join my colleagues to highlight the hypocrisy of the 
overriding Republican economic philosophy that extending dividends, 
capital gains and other tax cuts for millionaires and corporations 
create a rising tide that lifts all boats.
  Five years after the President's $1.5 trillion tax cut, our national 
debt now approaches $10 trillion. If our tax cuts performed as promised 
by those across the aisle, an exploding economy would have wiped out 
this debt.

[[Page 18542]]

  We have already proven that more needs to be done than just hope that 
sooner or later tax cuts will reach Americans who need help the most. 
But those who do need help must get in line and hope that the benefits 
of tax cuts for millionaires and corporations will ultimately trickle 
down to them.
  Perhaps the expanding gulf between the haves and the almost-haves is 
best illustrated by the fact that wages and salaries now make up the 
lowest share of gross domestic product since the government began 
keeping records on that in 1947, while corporate profits continue to 
break all-time records. Meanwhile, the buying power of the minimum wage 
has sunk to its lowest level in 50 years.
  What is missing are policies that ensure that the benefits of higher 
corporate earnings, productivity and globalization are widely shared, 
such as real government support for higher education, a progressive Tax 
Code and affordable health care.
  When choices are made at the expense of our safety net, choices that 
benefit the top 1 percent who will never struggle to pay a mortgage, 
never struggle to keep up with gas prices, never struggle to put their 
children through school, it is clear that a new direction for our 
economy is long overdue.
  How can the Republicans argue that this economy is bound in the right 
direction when our Nation is saddled with record-breaking deficits over 
4 consecutive years, combined with deep and painful cuts to hospitals, 
to schools, and to security? At least the Republicans' budget outlook 
since 2001 has been consistent. Americans could bank on the American 
budgets to slash funding for proven homeland security programs, 
veterans benefits, education and health care priorities, all the while 
cutting taxes for millionaires who need the break the least.
  As real-life indicators of poor Federal spending choices, such as 
stagnant wages, soaring crime rates and rising health care premiums and 
drug prices begin to take their toll on Americans, it is our 
responsibility to react. Instead, inaction reigns under the direction 
of the current leadership.
  In some cases, this inaction has yielded to half-hearted solutions, 
such as an energy bill that does more for oil and gas companies than 
lower gas prices, a Medicare bill that does more for drug companies and 
HMOs than make life-saving drugs affordable, a pension bill that takes 
it easy on corporate boards while ignoring the decline of traditional 
defined benefit plans.
  Eleven days away from the start of the fiscal year, the record of 
this Republican Congress on the economy shows that we have not 
completed a budget or a single appropriations bill.
  Fiscal irresponsibility has reached unprecedented new lows, depending 
on how you look at it. The debt limit has been raised for the fifth 
time in as many years to almost $10 trillion.
  Perhaps we shouldn't be worried. After all, the President's budget 
director said last month that $200 billion annual deficits are 
sustainable indefinitely. Apparently normal budget rules don't apply to 
this administration.
  But they do apply to a middle-class family of four living on Long 
Island whose monthly cost-of-living expenses, due mostly to rising gas 
prices and health care costs, are rapidly exceeding wage increases. 
Perhaps their creditors and collection agents will understand that 
outstanding debts owed by families sinking deeper into red ink are 
sustainable indefinitely.
  We can fix this mess. We have the blueprint; a new direction for 
America. And we only need to look to past and proven methods, like the 
pay-as-you-go budget rules that were enforced in the previous 
administration and produced surpluses that helped us start buying down 
our national debt.
  Indeed, we Democrats resolve to restore what should be the goals of 
our Federal budget, to reflect the priority of our Nation, to build a 
strong economy, and to set policies that reflect the values and 
priorities of the mainstream of Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working with all of my colleagues who 
recognize that it is long past time to reverse course on this economy 
and support a new direction for America.

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