Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to this resolution. It is, frankly, hard to take my colleagues on the other side of the aisle seriously when they come up here and give speech after speech complaining about the deficit, and then support this resolution that, what, increases the deficit.

Let's start with some facts. Every single Democratic President since Kennedy has left for their Republican successors a better deficit situation than they inherited, and every Republican President since Nixon has left a worse deficit situation than the one they inherited, all without exception.

Here we are again. A Republican President following a Democratic President, and the Republicans are set to increase the deficit and national debt, just like clockwork. Democrats have been finding solutions and cleaning up Republican messes for six decades, and thanks to Republican tax cuts for corporations and the top 1 percent, they added over $7 trillion to the national debt during Trump's first term, and here we go again. Help billionaires run up the debt and make everybody else pay.

As ranking member of the Committee on Education and Workforce, I am particularly outraged that Republicans want to fund these tax cuts for corporations and billionaires by making cuts to educational and nutritional programs. This could end up cutting things like Meals on Wheels, children's feeding programs, and could jeopardize Head Start, making it harder for students to receive K-12 education and higher education, and it will certainly rip away healthcare for millions of Americans.

There is nothing economically responsible about this budget because it increases the deficit. It helps billionaires, but working families and the middle class will pay the price.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to oppose this resolution.

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