Responsible Deficit Reduction

Floor Speech

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, our Nation's budget is a statement of our values, our priorities, and our vision for what kind of country we will be handing off to our children and grandchildren.

Working together to pass a responsible and forward-looking budget that works for the American people is one of the most important jobs we have in the Senate. The outcome of this process we are talking about will affect millions of families across our country, and the decisions we make this week are going to go a long way toward determining if our economy is going to continue moving in the right direction.

This morning I want to speak about two very different budgets being debated today, with two very different statements about what we should be focused on as a country, and two very different visions for how we need to be positioned to compete successfully and win the future.

This should not be a partisan process. I am still hopeful we can work together on a budget plan that cuts spending responsibly and works for the American people. But I am extremely disappointed that Republicans, who came into office talking about the economy, have proposed an extreme budget that would destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs, devastate workers and small businesses across the country, and threaten that fragile economic recovery.

I am disappointed that at a time when so many

middle-class families still need support to get back on their feet after the Wall Street crisis Republicans have proposed a highly politicized slash-and-burn budget that will pull the rug out from families and children.

I am disappointed that while the Senate Democratic proposal makes responsible and practical budget cuts that will allow us to continue out-innovating, out-educating, and out-building our competitors, Republicans are proposing a budget that would hack away at these estimates across the board and threaten our Nation's ability to compete now and into the future.

We are going to hear a lot about big numbers today, and I will mention some myself. I think it is important we keep in mind that this debate is about PO's PDF more than dollars and cents; it is about real people with real lives.

I recently heard from the South Central Workforce Development Council in Washington State, and they told me about a man they worked with named Damon.

Damon had been laid off from his job testing machine equipment. He held that job for almost 10 years. He and his wife had to move back in with his father, and he said that no matter how hard he tried he could not find work that matched his skills.

Damon had to do something about it. He went to his local one-stop career center and sat down with counselors who talked him through what local employers were looking for, and he decided he was going to learn computer networking. He studied hard and graduated from a local computer technology program. Despite this tough economy, he was able to work with the one-stop center to find a new job in a new field.

Damon was able to get back on his feet and support his family because of this program. He is not alone. Millions of Americans depend on workforce training programs to get the skills they need to get back to work and help our economy grow, including nearly 400,000 in my State of Washington.

House Republicans have proposed eliminating these critical programs and cutting off services for the workers who depend on them. At a time when so many workers are fighting to get back on the job, this would be devastating.

I recently met with a woman named Tiffany from Chehalis, WA. She told me her stepson, Rodney, had some difficult family circumstances and had fallen behind his peers and that she and her husband could not afford the private education they thought he needed to catch up. Then she heard about Head Start from a friend and enrolled Rodney in that program.

Tiffany told me she saw the difference within a few months. Just a short time later, Rodney was ready for kindergarten, and he is now the top reader in his first grade class. Tiffany and her family got the support they needed and they, too, are far from being alone.

Nearly 1 million families and their children depend on Head Start. The Republican proposal we will be voting on this afternoon eliminates services for 218,000 children, including more than 3,000 in my home State. It will close 16,000 classrooms across the country, and it will cause up to 55,000 teachers and staff to lose their jobs.

Again, this extreme slash-and-burn approach is wrong. It would hurt the most vulnerable of our children and families in our country and leave us at a competitive disadvantage in the future.

The Republican proposal also slashes community development block grants by 62 percent. That would eliminate services and decimate housing and economic development programs in communities across our country.

It cuts the community health centers so many Americans depend on for their health care, eliminating funding outright for 127 clinics in 38 States, reducing services at over 1,000 centers nationwide, cutting off health care for almost 3 million Americans that will cause 5,000 workers across our country to lose their jobs.

Not only will the Republican proposal devastate middle-class families across this country, it would also halt the beginning of an economic recovery that our families and our small business owners desperately need to take root.

Last month, our economy added over 200,000 private sector jobs, and the unemployment rate fell to the lowest level in 2 years.

We have a long way to go, but I am confident that we have turned the corner and are beginning to move in the right direction. Economists on both the left and the right have come out and said if the Republican proposal from the House were to pass, the economic recovery and millions of jobs across the country would be threatened.

In fact, one independent analysis said the Republican plan could destroy up to 700,000 American jobs in this country, including an estimated 15,000 in my State of Washington. That would be devastating, and we cannot afford to let that happen.

That is why the Senate Democratic proposal would take our country in a very different direction. It would cut spending--billions of dollars, in fact--but it would do so in a responsible and practical way that would protect our middle-class families, those who need it most.

Our proposal continues to make the investments we need as a country to compete and win in the 21st-century economy. Take the highly successful TIGER Program that I helped create. Communities across our country have been competing very hard for resources from this program so they can invest in transportation projects that make significant contributions to the Nation, to their region, or their metropolitan area.

Today, the TIGER Program is putting workers on the job and helping to lay down a strong foundation for economic growth in this country. But the Republican proposal would not only eliminate that program completely and slam the door on communities that want to invest in their infrastructure, it would also take back every penny of funding--all funding already--promised in last year's budget. That will halt 75 projects in 40 States that are ready to go and put 33,000 jobs at risk. It doesn't make any sense. The Democratic proposal would protect that critical investment.

The Republican proposal would also jeopardize public health and the environment by gutting the laws that keep our air and water clean. It cuts nearly $2 billion in funding for clean water infrastructure, which our local communities need to keep our families safe, so when you turn on that water in your kitchen you will know it is safe. It slashes the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which, by the way, uses revenue from offshore oil leases to protect some of the most treasured places in our country. But that is not all. The extreme Republican proposal would also slash investments for students and children, including a $700 million cut to title I funding, which will affect 2,400 schools serving over 1 million students. It cuts Pell grants by 15 percent, which will make it so much harder for kids to go to college today.

The House Republican proposal would even slash some of the bipartisan programs we have created to keep our families safe, including 66 percent cuts to both the Transit Security Grant Program that helps make sure our trains and subways are safe, as well as the Port Security Grant Program that helps protect our critical economic and national security assets across the country. That does not make sense. If a terrorist attack were to occur at one of our ports or transit systems, it would be absolutely devastating for our families and our economy, which is why the Democratic proposal protects these critical investments.

Those are just a few of the examples of the radical and irresponsible cuts that are proposed in the Republican budget.

We, of course, need to cut spending. We need to bring down the deficit. We all agree on that point. But we have to do it responsibly, and we cannot do it on the backs of our middle-class families who are struggling.

I urge my colleagues this afternoon to support the Democratic proposal, and if we cannot pass something today, I urge my Republican colleagues to come to the table and work with us to pass a responsible long-term budget that really does reflect our priorities, gets our workers back on the job, and invests in America's future.

I yield the floor.

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