Spending Cuts to Expired and Unnecessary Programs Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, the majority leader said a couple of moments ago that $15 billion was spare change.
Let me tell you what he apparently means by spare change. It means cutting food assistance for working families and taking $7 billion from the Children's Health Insurance Program. I guess that is spare change.
The previous speaker just said he was alarmed at the prospect that on the precipice of borrowing we were now going to cut back on our borrowing capacity as it relates to savings. After the same political party borrowed $2.3 trillion over 10 years to pay for a tax cut for people at the top, the strongest in America.
Those are the priorities. The priority is: Let's cut taxes for the strongest and the wealthiest. And let's pay for it by taking money from people who need it most in America.
We have seen time and again they are more focused on the needs of the wealthiest and the well-connected. We should be addressing the challenges of the middle clas in this session and making sure that they have ample assistance.
Now they are after healthcare for children. Now they want to propose $7 billion for their healthcare plan. Let's be clear: that priority, as long as I have been in this Congress, has been taking care of the strongest and the most powerful at the very top.
On January 19, 2001, when Bill Clinton said good-bye to the country, there was a $5.6 trillion surplus. They cut taxes by $1.3 in 2001. They cut taxes again by another $1 trillion in 2003.
So there was $2.3 million worth of tax cuts, two wars, a million and half new veterans. The answer to that, of course, was: let's have more tax cuts. That is precisely what they did with their tax cut plan. There was $2.3 trillion borrowed to provide for a tax cut for people at the very top.
They call themselves conservatives. They pronounce that they are disciples of balanced budgets. It has been reckless spending that we have watched them embrace time and again, and this is but another example of that endeavor.
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