Inequality and Fairness for All Americans

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman, and I want to thank him for his commitment and passion to this issue, and for organizing this effort tonight, and to join with him and our colleague from Minnesota (Mr. Ellison) to focus on the issue of income inequality.

And for those of us who serve in this institution, we have a moral obligation, a moral responsibility, to help those who are in punishing poverty.

It was more than 50 years ago, President Lyndon Johnson and a bipartisan Congress worked together to create the social safety net. And that social safety net is representative of the values of this great country where it says that it is not every man or woman for himself or herself, but it is our shared responsibility for one another, our accountability for one another, and particularly in times of need.

Their priority--their priority--bipartisan Members of this institution, was to lift families out of poverty.

Their tools?

Programs to help end hunger, creating good-paying jobs, provide affordable healthcare, guarantee a quality education for all of our children.

But, unfortunately, and I will be specific here, we have an administration, we have a President, and we have a Speaker of this body, Mr. Ryan, who are not fighting a war on poverty. They are fighting a war on working families and the poor.

President Trump and Speaker Ryan do not value the beneficiaries of these programs. They do not value these people's lives, unless they happen to have an estate or a corporate spending account. They want corporations and the wealthiest Americans to see bigger profits, even if the poor suffer greater pain.

Republicans have repeatedly gone after the nutrition programs, the food stamp program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; programs that help people bounce back from tough times and to retire with dignity after a life of hard work.

When I did research for a book that was published last year, ``The Least Among Us: Waging the Battle for the Vulnerable,'' what I found is, when it came to nutrition programs, who were the people who were engaged and involved?

Bob Dole, Republican from Kansas. George McGovern, Democrat.

When you looked at the child tax credits, George Bush was for a child tax credit, as well as Jay Rockefeller. Democrats and Republicans who came together on these issues for refundable tax credits for families to help lift them out of poverty.

When you take a look at a whole variety, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, while there may have been differences in the Chamber as they debated them, but when it came to the vote, they were passed on a bipartisan basis because, it is my view, that the folks who served there understood why they were elected and what this institution is about and how it provides opportunity for people in this country.

That is what our job is here, is to provide opportunity for the people of this country. It is about educating needy children, feeding hungry families, supporting our veterans, and shielding seniors from poverty.

Those are not the great achievements that the other side of the aisle looks at. They are grating to our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. It is about the view that these are the takers, not the makers; that they relax in a hammock and don't want to get up and go out to work, demeaning hardworking people in this country.

The majority in this body and in the Senate and in the White House are forcing everyday Americans to pay for their $2 trillion tax cut for corporations and for the wealthiest Americans, and now they want to use this tax cut scam as an excuse to gut services and investments that are critical to our families and our communities.

I just want to go back for a second, because I was here. This was on the food stamp program. I was here for the Contract with America. Wow. 1995.

Do you know where it went?

Let's abolish the school lunch program. Let's block grant the food stamp program. Let Medicare wither on the vine.

The fact is life hasn't changed that much. There is a consistency about some of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

Yesterday, under the guise of reviewing welfare, the Trump administration is once again targeting the most vulnerable among us.

The President's latest executive order would make it more difficult for people to access services: healthcare, nutrition, housing. A tax on our social safety net does not reflect our values, nor does it make sense at all.

The biggest issue that people are facing today is that they are in jobs that just do not pay them enough money to live on. So we must do more to end poverty and to end income inequality, and that does begin with wages.

Now, the social safety net has helped millions of Americans. According to Brookings Institution, the poverty rate has declined by more than one-third since 1967, in large part due to the success of our safety net programs. It continues to help millions. In an average month, the food stamp program benefits help feed one in four children in the United States.

What good news, then, that, Mr. Speaker, his view of what should happen is that if people are humiliated enough, that in fact they will try to figure out how to make do for themselves.

That is not what this country is about. It is a slap in the face to hardworking Americans. It is time for a better deal for Americans, one that does prioritize job creation, as you have talked about, rising incomes, a 21st century economy that levels the playing field for the working class and the working poor.

And I am reminded of the words of Bobby Kennedy, whose legacy fighting poverty should be a model for all of us, and just let me quote him. Mr. Speaker, I am sure the gentleman has read this quote, if I know him: ``I believe that as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil. Government belongs wherever evil needs an adversary and there are people in distress.''

This is what our role and our responsibility is, is to help to provide that opportunity. Do not let people be abandoned in this country for some ideological views or the sense that we need to make sure that the wealthiest, the millionaires, the billionaires, the corporations, need to be the winners in our society.

It is not just Congress' moral obligation to help those in poverty, it is our duty. That is why we were elected to come to this institution. We should not be abandoning the people who put their faith and trust in all of us.

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the gentleman for focusing on this issue and thank him for including me.

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