[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5988]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    IN OPPOSITION TO THE RYAN BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Maffei) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MAFFEI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition of the 
legislation H. Con. Res. 96, the budget proposed by the chairman of the 
Budget Committee, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Ryan).
  Unfortunately, this year's Ryan budget is more of the same 
recklessness and extreme partisanship that we have seen year after year 
from the House Republican leadership.
  According to the Democrats on the House Budget Committee, under 
Ryan's plan, middle class families in my district in central New York 
will pay an average of $2,000 more each year.
  Once again, the Ryan budget ends the Medicare guarantee as we know 
it, and it would turn Medicare, instead, into a privatized voucher 
program and would shift health care costs to seniors.
  It threatens to cut off critical investments in job creation and 
infrastructure, and it slashes education at a time when local school 
districts in central New York are already struggling to find the 
resources necessary to provide our children with the high-quality 
education that they deserve.
  This is not a balanced approach, and it is not a responsible 
solution. People in central New York and across the country need 
better. Congress must get serious about balancing the budget and about 
reducing the national debt and deficit, but not on the backs of our 
seniors and not on the backs of the middle class and certainly not on 
the backs of future generations of Americans.
  At a time when many central New Yorkers are still struggling as the 
economy recovers, we simply cannot accept the irresponsible policies of 
the Ryan budget.
  I call on my colleagues to reject the Ryan budget and to work 
together to create a bipartisan budget that gets our fiscal house in 
order and promotes economic growth, creates jobs, protects our seniors, 
and strengthens the middle class.

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