Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011

Floor Speech

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Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Madam Chair, I move to strike the last word.

The Acting CHAIR (Mrs. Miller of Michigan). The gentlewoman from Illinois is recognized for 5 minutes.

Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Madam Chair, I rise in support of the Flake amendment, and I strongly oppose the underlying Republican no-jobs continuing resolution.

If people out there have the gnawing feel that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and they're stuck in the middle and stuck getting the bill, the fact of the matter is they're right. This bill is just another example of the Republicans' true agenda, which is helping out big business and the rich while sticking it to the middle class and those who aspire to it.

The cuts that they're proposing would actually cause a devastating wave of unemployment at the State and local level, particularly in the public sector. The Economic Policy Institute has estimated that passage would cost us nearly 1 million jobs. Who are we talking about? You know, it's cool these days to go after public sector workers, but what we're talking about are the teachers--I was one once a long time ago--the teachers who teach our children and grandchildren, the very police who keep our streets safe and put their lives on the line, and the firefighters who answer our 9/11 emergency call. We're talking about workers who are the backbone of our communities.

Over the last 2 years, the Democratic Congress and President Obama were successfully able to stave off a second Great Depression, but we're still in the early stages of recovery, unemployment is still too high at 9 percent, and American families are still suffering. The proposed cuts would cost us 1 million more jobs, be devastating to our recovery, and hurt Americans trying to take care of their families and make ends meet.

Let's just take a look at some of the things they want to cut. How about the National Institutes of Health would be cut $1.6 billion? This is funding that goes to vital medical research, including cures and improved treatments for devastating diseases. High speed rail development, which would provide desperately needed jobs, but beyond that, reinvigorate a keystone of the American infrastructure, it faces $2.5 billion in cuts.

In addition to the important jobs program, what really hurts is Republicans want to put assistance to poor families on the cutting board. They want to cut $1 billion for community health centers, the only access to health care for many poor families. And how about $747 million for the Women, Infants and Children, the WIC program? That's food assistance for low-income pregnant women and their children. The 300,000 beneficiaries in my State of Illinois receive a grand average benefit of $44.62 a month. That's it, per person, per month, and that minimal subsidy would be cut.

House Republicans' proposals to slash Federal spending programs are irresponsible and indiscriminate, eliminating programs that create jobs and cutting assistance for low-income and middle class families. There is another way to deal with the deficit and to balance our budget.

We need to enact a Democratic initiative to make it in America. We should be making things here. We should revive our manufacturing sector rather than providing tax breaks that encourage companies to go offshore.

I offered a plan last year as part of President Obama's 18-member National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to make investments that get us out of the economic doldrums, boost job creation, and reduce the deficit--and not on the backs of low-income and middle-income Americans.

We can do it. We need to stop the Republican efforts and protect job-creating programs that benefit the middle class and the safety net programs that help the most vulnerable in our society because that's who we are as Americans.

The Republicans refuse to make the investments necessary to get people back to work because they refuse to give up tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. Their policies are a prescription for disaster, one that puts families, communities, and our Nation at risk.

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