[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8339-8340]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            PRESIDENT TRUMP'S BUDGET IS A SHORTSIGHTED PLAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Lawson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LAWSON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, once again, President Trump's 
budget calls for extreme cuts to vital programs that are funding for 
the Nation's poor, for healthcare, food

[[Page 8340]]

stamps, student loans, and disability payments. It is a very 
shortsighted plan that seeks to break the situation that exists for 
those who can least afford it, while giving tax breaks to the wealthy 
in our country.
  In my district, one in every four Floridians have been on food stamps 
for some point over the last 12 months. This is twice the national 
average. It is really unconscionable for the President to propose 
cutting nutrition benefit programs by $192 billion because that would 
mean less to those in north Florida who need it the most.
  SNAP programs that benefit the needy are so important. We have kids 
in north Florida, which I have had the personal opportunity to witness, 
in school programs, and probably the only meal that they are going to 
get is at school where they come and don't have an opportunity to get 
another meal at home.
  We put hardworking Floridians in a no-win position, having to choose 
between paying their light bills or affordable healthcare. This is 
totally unacceptable in America.
  This budget calls for slashing $800 billion from Medicaid over the 
next decade and $72 billion for disability benefits, which are so 
important. There is no way that we should be encouraging people who are 
disabled to go out and work to earn their benefits.
  Did you know, Mr. Speaker, that almost 40 percent of low-income women 
in America who are between the age of 15 and 49 years use Medicaid to 
pay for their healthcare needs?
  And in my home State, Florida, 50 percent of those pregnancies are 
paid for by Medicaid. Who will make up the difference? The need will 
not magically disappear, as most people think.
  This is a shortsighted budget and one that eliminates programs that 
particularly are geared toward protecting the poor. That is what our 
job should be in government: to make sure that we protect those and 
speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.
  At this time, when we need to be working to make college more 
affordable and accessible in order to prepare the next generation of 
tomorrow's leaders, this is counterproductive to be cutting financial 
assistance to these students.

                              {time}  1045

  The President is proposing deep cuts to our Nation's poorest urban 
and rural communities, which would shrink the supply of affordable 
housing and increase homelessness and other hardships across this 
country.
  I personally have been touring areas in my district where HUD has 
failed these communities. The budget continues corporate welfare to 
Wall Street, and what is so amazing is that Wall Street doesn't receive 
those cuts. The people who receive the cuts are the ones who need it 
the most.
  An inspiring and most hopeful past President once said that the 
defining challenge of our time is making sure that our economy works 
for every working American.
  This budget cut does not put us on the path of tackling these 
challenges. I believe that our Nation's budget should reflect our own 
values as a society, but it does not align with the values of the Fifth 
Congressional District, and, therefore, I intend to strongly oppose 
this budget.
  We need to remember that all of the issues we debate on this floor, 
from healthcare to the President's budget, to America's role in the 
Middle East, and our borders, foreign policies, those issues have an 
effect on all of our constituents. While some of our colleagues seem to 
only want to have political perks, sound bites in the media back home, 
I implore them to remember this simple fact: The work we do here 
matters to every person in America, not to just those who vote for us.
  It is important that as we approach this budget, Mr. Speaker, that we 
think about those who are less fortunate.

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