2027 Presidential Budget Request Will Make Life Harder

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to President Trump's 2027 budget. Let me be clear. This budget is completely and totally morally bankrupt to its core--rotten to its core.

While we debate numbers and line items here in Washington, the reality is being felt at home in our communities. In New Mexico, people are worried about how they are going to put food on the table, a roof over their head, how they are going to keep the lights on, how they are going to make their rent. They are looking to us, the leaders in this body, to do something to help the American people.

Yet, this budget does the exact opposite. It is a betrayal to the American people. It guts fundamental programs that support the working people of this country. At a time when utilities are at an all-time high, this budget eliminates LIHEAP, which is vital to helping low- income families heat and cool their homes, including millions of seniors.

At a time when we have a housing crisis in every community across this country, this bill guts block grants and housing programs that provide affordable housing in our communities.

At a time when millions of Americans can't afford healthcare after the GOP in this body decided to not extend healthcare subsidies, they are proposing to slash $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health. They are proposing to gut and consolidate and eliminate billions of programs from the CDC, from SAMHSA, and from HRSA.

In a time when Americans are struggling with an opioid epidemic and an addiction crisis that is literally claiming lives every week in communities across this country, they are gutting the programs that keep Americans alive.

In a time when New Mexicans are facing one of the most difficult water years we have probably ever seen in the history of our State in modern times, they are threatening to cut funding for water infrastructure.

This is a morally bankrupt budget, and it will bankrupt the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I stand here tonight to reject the moral bankruptcy of this administration, to reject the moral bankruptcy of this body that refuses to act, and to call on all of us to put forward a vision for our people that invest in the working people of this country who wake up every day and go to work in order to put food on the table and care for their families.

Now, people will say we can't afford it. How could we afford to invest in our people? Let me just say this: In New Mexico, we are one of the poorest States in the United States, but we have made the moral choice to invest in our people. We have made the moral choice to become the first in the Nation to guarantee free childcare and early childhood education for every single family. We are the first in the Nation to guarantee free higher education and trade school to every New Mexican.

When the GOP shut down the Federal Government and Donald Trump threatened to gut healthcare and food assistance, New Mexico stood up and acted. We extended healthcare to thousands of New Mexicans and made sure that not a single family would go without food on their table.

We reject the cruelty and moral bankruptcy of politics that says we can't invest in our people, and we reject a budget that would steal from them so that an out-of-control madman in the White House could take the American people's hard-earned taxpayer dollars and buy more bombs.

That is why we are here tonight, because we reject that America.

Mr. Speaker, let me just say this: We are the wealthiest Nation in the world. We can invest in our people. We can lower costs. We can build an economy for every single person. We can value our communities. We can care for our communities. We are here tonight to stand up, to speak out, and to reject the moral bankruptcy of a budget that would bankrupt our people.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source