Cuts to Critical Spending
Floor Speech
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Mr. DELUZIO. Mr. Speaker, the bill our Republican colleagues forced through the House, the default on America act, is rubbish.
They are threatening to push our economy off a cliff unless we slash the basic functions of government by massive amounts, but they are protecting tax cuts for billionaires.
It is the very definition of fiscal irresponsibility and recklessness. In the bill forced through several weeks ago with no Democratic votes, with four Republicans voting against it, House Republicans voted for massive cuts with zero protections for veterans' healthcare, for rail safety, for Meals on Wheels for seniors, and so much more.
They voted to pull back $2 billion from the VA. That is a cut. Now, their appropriations bill underfunds the Cost of War Toxic Exposure Fund by nearly $15 million. If they didn't want to fund veterans' care, they shouldn't have sent Americans off to 20 years of war.
Do you know why Republicans are taking these extreme positions, these unpopular positions the American people do not want?
Because what matters most to them is protecting tax cuts for the uber wealthy and for the largest and most powerful corporations in this country.
Former President Obama once said, there could be an asteroid coming to Earth, and the Republican plan and response would be tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy.
It is true. They are for the big corporations and the rich and powerful. That is who they are. That is their core value.
This approach is fiscally irresponsible. What is more, their economic plan is not working for the people. Their tired, trickle-down fairy tale has been ripping us all off, starving the government of revenue, and has led to massive gaps in equality.
Wall Street, big corporations, CEOs, they have done just fine. The American people, not so much. This Republican economic vision is killing the American Dream.
It is driving up huge deficits in our government. It guts the core things our government does but makes sure that the richest people and companies in this country can still avoid paying their fair share in taxes.
Every Member of this body pays the same amount in taxes toward Social Security as Elon Musk. You can look it up. He is one of the richest men in the history of the world.
Elon Musk and all of his billionaire pals should be paying their fair share. They are not because Republicans want them to use the Federal Government to subsidize extreme wealth and corporate power.
Let me be clear. This is not about punishing success and demonizing the wealthy. It is about fairness and fiscal responsibility.
Many of my House Republican colleagues don't want to admit the path to longer-term fiscal health in the budget is to actually tax the ultra-rich at historically normal rates.
Let's consider Republican President Dwight Eisenhower; hardly a radical. I don't think anyone here would call him a socialist.
Under his administration, the wealthiest Americans paid a top marginal tax rate of over 90 percent. Today, it is 37 percent.
We are at historically low tax rates for the most powerful, the wealthiest people in this country, and for the biggest and most powerful corporations. It is not an accident. It is by Republican design.
Let's look back at the 2017 Trump tax cuts that I am seeing handed out to the richest Americans and biggest corporations.
The bill was a massive wealth transfer to billionaires but also raised the deficit by almost 2 trillion--with a t--dollars. It gave so many of the benefits to the top 1 percent. Everyone knows the American people are being ripped off by this.
We can feel the dark reality, that the American Dream keeps getting pulled away while Republicans help billionaires and huge corporations cash out on the public's dime.
It is far past time for a change to real fiscal responsibility. Instead, Republicans are now proposing slash-and-burn cuts, defunding the government while urging the public to not look behind the curtain at their priorities for revenue.
Our colleagues know they are holding the economy hostage to protect these massive tax cuts and handouts to the most powerful, the richest people who have ever walked the planet Earth.
They are holding America's full faith and credit hostage to cut things that make your life better: programs like rail safety inspections, air traffic control towers, IRS auditors charged with tracking down tax cheats.
Republicans are literally threatening to blow up the American economy unless we agree to slash nearly everything in government, but they want to protect tax cuts for billionaires.
They still expect us to buy into this utterly discredited nonsense known as trickle-down economics. It is a fairy tale. It has never worked. It doesn't work.
We should be creating an economy that rewards hard work, not just wealth. That means taking on corporate power and putting people first.
We should be fighting for the common good and investing in our shared prosperity, not just the rich and powerful.
That means instead of slashing the heart of government, we should make the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share.
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