Proposing A Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution

Floor Speech

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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this legislation. After passing nearly a $2 trillion tax cut that gives 83 percent of the benefits to the wealthiest 1 percent, it is both shockingly hypocritical and morally indefensible to propose a balanced budget amendment that would force dramatic cuts to the programs that support America's veterans.

In the wake of the GOP's corporate tax cuts, balancing the budget every year would likely require cuts to the Veterans Health Administration, which serves 9 million veterans every year; or cuts to the GI Bill, which is a key recruiting tool to ensure military readiness; or cuts to benefits for disabled veterans who are injured in combat; or cuts to pensions that veterans earn through their service; or cuts to our national cemeteries, which ensure veterans are laid to rest with the dignity they deserve.

This legislation would undoubtedly require cuts to Medicaid, which serves 1.75 million veterans, and it would prevent us from expanding existing programs like caregiver benefits for veterans of all generations.

All of this would happen while the wealthiest people in this country enjoy a tax cut that they did not need.

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to our priorities, veterans belong in the front of the line and corporations belong at the back.

The majority believes that we can afford a corporate tax cut that costs $1.3 trillion, yet we cannot afford to extend caregiver benefits to every veteran, which would only cost $4 billion.

This vote is, indeed, about a country headed toward bankruptcy, but it is not so much financial bankruptcy as it is moral bankruptcy.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly urge my colleagues to reject this amendment.

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