[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8245]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            ECONOMIC DIGNITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, Americans aren't asking for much: the 
ability to put in an honest day's work and provide for your family's 
basic needs; the chance to wake up in the morning without facing a 
series of impossible choices--food or medication, mortgage or car 
repair, a bus pass or school supplies.
  In other words, the basic economic dignity that every single person 
in this country deserves.
  The Trump administration claims that their budget is about dignity. 
Here is what this budget doesn't understand: dignity can be threatened 
by something beyond your control, by disability, by job loss, by 
illness, by accident, by automation, by a government that shames you 
for needing a little help when you are dealt a tough hand, by the pain 
of having to send your kid to school knowing that he is not going to 
have the lunch money that he needs.
  Countless American families battle these daily heartbreaks and small 
injustices with their heads held high. For those families, this budget 
doesn't see them for their dignity, but views them with disgrace.

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