Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2025

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for the opportunity to speak. I thank him for his great work.

Mr. Speaker, budgets are about choices for the American people. If we look at what is happening with this current budget, it is a bonanza for billionaires. We live in a moment in our country when 1 percent of our population, the very top, hold as much wealth as the bottom half of our country. One percent of the top, the billionaires and millionaires, hold more wealth than the bottom half of our people. It is an astounding moment in which we are living.

The very top are not paying their fair share, and everybody in America knows it, including them. How many more mansions do we need to see that take up acres and acres? How many yachts do these people actually need? Some of the old movies about ``Goldfinger'' and all come to mind. Some people seem to like gold a whole lot in this country.

If the tax cuts that are proposed in this bill offer a few hundred dollars to people who live in the bottom half of our country, which is most of the people that I represent, the bottom half of incomes, the people at the top are going to get hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars back. I say to myself: Do they have any conscience about what is happening in their country? To take away the healthcare, Medicare, Medicaid, the cuts that Republicans are proposing, you will cause death in this country.

To me, what is happening here is shameless. Here is the chart. If we look back at who caused the debt in our country, wow. It is pretty obvious. If we go back to the Reagan Presidency, all you are doing is just repeating what happened. They added $2 trillion. Then the Bush II tax cuts added $8 trillion. The Trump tax cuts are already over $2.5 trillion.

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Ms. KAPTUR. The Afghan and Iraq wars declared by Republican Presidents added $8 trillion. If you look at this, two-thirds of what we owe were caused by the Republican side of the aisle. I represent a lot of Republicans, and I will tell you they are honest people and they will pay their taxes, but they don't like this excess. It is hurting America. The Republican budget is just a bonanza for billionaires. Shame on you.

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