[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9723-9724]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          BALANCING THE BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Wisconsin (Ms. Moore) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. MOORE. I can tell you that one of the most heartbreaking 
experiences that I have had as a Member of Congress is to watch this 
Congress attempt to balance the deficit and the budget on the backs of 
infants, on the backs of children who need their educational 
opportunity, and on the backs of seniors. We have seen gargantuan 
efforts to cut Medicare, the main program to prevent poverty for our 
seniors; Medicaid; the Women, Infants, and Children program; nutrition 
programs for children; efforts to decimate educational opportunities 
for young people, while we refuse to end tax breaks for Big Oil.
  The Big Five companies made nearly a trillion dollars--$1 trillion--
in profits in the last decade, and yet we continue to insist on 
providing tax breaks for these profitable companies. Every year, we 
provide subsidies to oil companies that they pocket.
  In addition to that, Mr. Speaker, we are cutting food from babies. I 
saw numerous, numerous amendments to cut moneys for lactating moms, 
pregnant women, and newborn babies, while we refuse to end the tax 
breaks for millionaires. We cannot afford another $800 billion in tax 
cuts for the top 2 percent in our country. This is backwards. This is 
un-American.
  I join my Democratic colleagues from the House Budget Committee to 
express--in no uncertain terms--the basic principles we are fighting 
for in this budget agreement. I also want to state my support for my 
colleagues from the House of Representatives who are working hard to 
negotiate an agreement that demonstrates both decency and fairness.
  I have had the honor of serving on the Budget Committee for two-and-
a-half years, and I have learned a thing or two through my service. I 
also brought my own budgetary expertise to the table--as a former 
legislator for the State of Wisconsin, as a former community leader, 
and as a former (and current!) head of household. I know--and all of us 
here know, though we are not all admitting it--the fundamental truth 
that any budget agreement must take a balanced, reasonable approach 
towards deficit reduction. We cannot simply slash spending while 
preserving every nickel and dime of tax breaks for giant corporations 
and multi-millionaires.
  As we stand here today, the leaders from both parties, and their 
staff, are working round-the-clock to chart our path forward. The 
American people have expressed their concern about our national debt 
and deficit, and the Congress has responded. We are on the brink of 
making new and historic policy changes that will be very difficult to 
un-do. We have the unique opportunity to make the right choice to end a 
wide array of gratuitous tax loopholes that will save billions upon 
billions of dollars--and in the end, will help us to preserve the 
priorities that are so crucial for Wisconsin's Fourth District, and for 
people all across this country.
  We have the opportunity to choose to trim down the debt by cutting 
tax subsidies for oil companies--instead of cutting nutrition programs 
for Women, Infants, and Children, WIC.
  We have the opportunity to choose to reduce the deficit by cutting 
ethanol subsidies--instead of cutting Medicare.
  This is nothing short of an historic moment in time. We cannot turn 
our backs on these opportunities.
   My Democratic colleagues at the budget negotiation table have 
assured us many times that revenue-raisers must be part of the 
solution. Unfortunately, their Republican counterparts have not offered 
us similar reassurance.
   We're already in desperate need of a just and decent tax code that 
actually requires our Nation's most successful, wealthy people to pay 
their fair share.
  We recently learned that one of the largest U.S. corporations, 
General Electric, paid no federal taxes in 2010. GE claimed a $3.2 
billion tax benefit on reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, 
including $5.1 billion from its operations in the United States.
  And that's just one example. Other corporations are able to pick from 
a long menu of tax breaks that allow them to reap profits while 
shipping jobs overseas.
   We just celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the Bush tax cuts--so 
we have timely, concrete data showing us what happens when you slash 
income tax rates. Then-President Bush promised that his tax cuts would 
``starve the beast,'' reducing revenues and thus forcing members of 
Congress to reduce the size of the Federal Government. He claimed that 
low taxes would stimulate the economy, and increase the prosperity of 
our Nation. He vowed that tax breaks would create jobs and generate 
wealth for all.
  Well, we now know the truth: Most of the benefits accrued to the 
rich. The tax cuts didn't spur job growth. During the 2001 to 2007 
business cycle, America's economy enjoyed the slowest rate of jobs 
growth on record since World War II--a rate that was just one-fifth the 
pace of what we saw in the 1990s. High-wage earners' income increased, 
but inequality just got worse. Government didn't get smaller: in fact, 
we saw massive expansion, in the form of new programs like Medicare 
Part D, and two new wars.

[[Page 9724]]

   In addition to the cautionary tale of the Bush years--what we've 
seen over the past 30 years is that lower marginal tax rates have not 
led to particularly impressive economic growth, labor markets or 
revenues. Growth was actually more impressive back when marginal tax 
rates were higher.
   The verdict is in. We need to reform our tax code now, for the sake 
of fairness, and for the sake of our economy. We cannot continue to 
fight tooth and nail for special interests, for the sake of justifying 
unprecedented cuts to everything from education to health care to 
infrastructure to public safety. We cannot protect the wealthy few at 
the expense of tens of millions of low-income and working-class 
families.
   There is no excuse for this. We can, and we must, do better.
   We all know we'll have to make hard choices to come to an agreement. 
But my Democratic colleagues also know that we must do all we can to 
preserve our economic progress, create jobs, and preserve programs that 
serve struggling families. We must reduce the deficit--but we must do 
it while adhering to basic principles of fairness and morality.

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