Further Continuing Appropriations Amendments, 2011
Floor Speech
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Mr. KEATING. Madam Speaker, I rise to offer this motion to recommit which I believe will greatly improve our fiscal health and ensure that we're responsible to all taxpayer dollars and the taxpayers of this great Nation.
We all agree--all of us, Republicans and Democrats alike--that cuts in wasteful spending are vital to our country's future. The decision that stands before us is whether we should adopt reckless cuts to some of our most important programs or not: education cuts, cuts to college scholarships, reading teachers, Head Start.
As a D.A. for the last decade, I know the effects of cuts to police officers and firefighters, and I know what they mean to our public safety. Reckless cuts: cuts to border protection, cuts to the hubs of cybersecurity research so that we can better protect ourselves in our infrastructure, cuts in cancer research and other life-saving ventures of the National Institute of Health.
It's worth repeating that Moody's chief economic expert, Mark Zandi, the former adviser to the McCain for President campaign, just this week estimated that the reckless Republican cuts will cost our country 700,000 jobs. Investment groups estimate that the reckless cuts will cut the economy by a growth this year of almost one-half.
Our alternative? Our alternative is an alternative of sensible spending cuts. In this motion, we're offering such a sensible spending cut.
Let's stop sending taxpayers' money to the most profitable companies in the world. The time is now to stop subsidizing the largest oil companies. I think it shocks every American taxpayer to know that they're required to fork out over $40 billion in subsidies over the next decade to the most economically profitable of companies--especially as oil soars to a hundred dollars per barrel. My constituents in Plymouth, Massachusetts, are paying almost $3.50 per gallon and have had enough. Even ex-Shell CEO John Hofmeister says enough is enough. He said, ``With high oil prices, such subsidies are not necessary.''
So let's put a stop to this welfare program for Big Oil right now. Cuts to police, cuts to fire, cuts to cancer research, cuts to border security, cuts to reading teachers--or oil subsidies to the most profitable of companies.
I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this motion to recommit.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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