[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3827]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    PRESIDENT DOES NOT PRIORITIZE ISSUES IMPORTANT TO MIDDLE CLASS 
                               AMERICANS

  (Ms. SOLIS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. SOLIS. Mr. Speaker, for 6 years, Americans have felt left behind 
by this administration and a Republican Congress that did not 
prioritize issues important to many Americans. With the November 
elections, we had hoped that President Bush would get the message that 
Americans wanted change. Unfortunately, the President's budget, in my 
opinion, is no different than many of the budgets of his last 6 years; 
it leaves too many people behind.
  Six years ago, the President vowed to leave no child left behind, but 
his budget underfunds our schools by $15 billion. How can the President 
hold schools accountable when he refuses to give them the funding 
necessary to make those improvements?
  The President's budget will also force States to eliminate health 
care coverage for children because he refuses to provide enough money 
to the SCHIP program to cover more than 9 million kids now enrolled in 
the program. At a time when 1 million more Americans are joining the 
ranks of the uninsured every year, do we really want to take health 
care coverage away from the most vulnerable populations, the children 
and low-income parents?
  Mr. Speaker, the President's priorities are different than ours, and 
our budget will look significantly different.

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