Waiving Points of Order Against Conference Report on S. 1932, Deficit Reduction Act of 2005

WAIVING POINTS OF ORDER AGAINST CONFERENCE REPORT ON S. 1932, DEFICIT REDUCTION ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - December 18, 2005)

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Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and meanwhile, the Republicans are stealing from the stockings and taking away the hopes and dreams of aspiring students, slashing safety nets that help middle-income households get by, and kicking seniors to the curb with this budget package that is contrary to everything about the true spirit of Christmas as I understand it.

People of all faiths know that budgets are not just about numbers or percentages. There is no more moral document that we in Congress work on than the budget. What we choose to pay for and what we choose to cut are moral choices about how to run our country, reflections of the values of our society. And it takes a special brand of callousness, in the day or the middle of the night, to propose big cuts to Medicaid, student loans and foster care, as we believe this budget does, when the needs of our country are greater today than they were just a few short months ago.

When the need in the gulf coast rose, the need in the rest of the country did not subside. It is not the students who are responsible for historic deficits. Poor people did not cause our fiscal decline.

If we want to get our fiscal house in order, then we should start with the tax cuts that mostly benefit the wealthiest households. Millionaires are getting an average of $103,000 in tax cuts this year because of cuts from 2001 and 2003, and next year they are going to get another $20,000 as two more tax cuts take effect. And the Republican bills passed another $108 billion in tax cuts this year. Tell me, who is going to pay for those?

Deficits matter. But the one we should be talking about today is the moral deficit of those who would balance tax cuts for the wealthy on the backs of the working poor. I believe, as best said by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, that, ``the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.''

Mr. Speaker, tonight we have a choice about the type of leaders we want to be and what our country stands for. We can decide to do the morally responsible thing. We can do what is right. Mr. Speaker, together, America can do better

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