[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8207-8208]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS ALTERNATIVE FISCAL YEAR 08 BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs.

[[Page 8208]]

Christensen) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, today I rise as the Health Chair of 
the Congressional Black Caucus to express my strong support for the 
Congressional Black Caucus' alternative fiscal year `08 budget and to 
urge its passage.
  I want to begin by applauding our leadership, our chairwoman, Carolyn 
Kilpatrick, and the person who headed up our Budget Task Force for his 
hard work, skill, leadership and commitment to justice it represents, 
Congressman Bobby Scott.
  This is a smart and responsible budget that is as fiscally sound as 
it is congruent to the needs, hopes and aspirations not only of African 
Americans, but of all Americans.
  This budget uses the Democratic budget, a good budget itself, as a 
starting point and takes a step further by putting $112 billion more in 
education, training, employment and social services; $9 billion more in 
veterans benefits and services; $8 billion more in homeland security. 
And over a 5-year period, it spends more than $101 billion on health 
care. It does all of this and more while balancing the budget in 2012 
and creating $141 billion surplus, beginning to reduce the burden that 
the Republican spending spree would have placed on future generations.
  Four years ago, the current administration began taking us down the 
slippery slope of huge deficits and unprecedented debt by giving tax 
cuts to the wealthiest Americans instead of using that money to 
strengthen our country by investing in the American people. This budget 
rescinds some of those tax cuts and incentives, including the tax cuts 
to the top two tiers of income, tax cuts that this country could not 
afford then and cannot afford today.
  By rescinding those tax cuts, which is where our budget departs from 
the Democratic base budget, we begin now to correct the wrong that was 
perpetrated particularly on the poor and middle class, and we put the 
interests of the majority of this Nation's hardworking families at the 
forefront of our spending priorities, and Mr. Speaker, it is about 
time.
  While this is true across every line item, it is especially true as 
it relates to spending on health and health care. As I have previously 
observed and stated on the Record, the President's fiscal year 2008 
budget proposes to eliminate, cut or flat fund every single program 
that is critical to reducing health disparities or to strengthening the 
health and wellness of African Americans and other people of color 
across this Nation.
  The Democratic budget, for which I applaud Chairman John Spratt, does 
much to restore these programs, at least in part. But the health 
deficit of African Americans and other people of color, of the poor and 
rural Americans requires a major investment to reverse the severely 
adverse impact of long-term neglect, neglect which is not only causing 
excess deaths, but driving up the cost of health care and undermining 
the quality of care for all Americans.
  And so, Mr. Speaker, the CBC alternative budget uses the additional 
funding stream from the funds we put back into the budget to maintain, 
create or expand programs that are proven to reduce racial and ethnic 
health disparities that have left more people of color in poorer 
health, without access to adequate health care, and more likely to die 
prematurely from preventable causes often during their most productive 
years for far too long.
  Programs like Healthy Start, nurse education and other health 
profession programs, the Ryan-White Care Act, Health Careers 
Opportunity programs, Gulf Coast Health Infrastructure, Maternal and 
Child Health get the funding they need. And NIH and community health 
centers get an additional increase as well.
  Most importantly, we create a health equity fund to fund prevention 
programs that pay for themselves and create value, and which make that 
investment to fill in the gaps in health care in poor and rural 
communities and communities of color, and to improve the health status 
of all Americans.

                              {time}  2145

  The CBC budget through its investment in education, economic 
opportunity, housing, and all of the social determinants of health 
provide that kind of holistic approach to our communities and our 
Nation's well-being that had been missing and for which we are all, but 
especially people of color, paying the price.
  Mr. Speaker, Dr. Martin Luther King once said that the moral arc of 
the universe bends at the elbow of justice. The CBC resets the moral 
compass of our Nation, and the CBC sits at the elbow of justice. And by 
supporting the CBC budget we not only will be championing justice and 
equity in health care but in all social, public and economic policies 
and programs that currently fail far too many of our Nation's citizens 
and which have thus created two Americas separated by a wide and deep 
chasm of inequality.
  Mr. Speaker, Dr. Martin Luther King also said that the time is always 
right to do what is right. Well, that time is now, and doing what is 
right is passing the CBC alternative budget. I urge all of my 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote for this well-
constructed, sound budget that sets a new direction for this country 
not just for today but for tomorrow.

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