Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2012
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. CLEAVER. Madam Chair, the Congressional Black Caucus has offered an alternative resolution to the budget proposals every year since 1981. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Congressional Black Caucus, and we have over those years served as the conscience of this body.
I stand in front of you today to say that this is perhaps the most important of all of the alternative budgets offered by the Congressional Black Caucus. And the reason is, Madam Chairman, that we believe someone must stand up for the vulnerable population. The vulnerable population is not what we generally like to think; it's not the stereotypical view of a person who doesn't work and is shiftless and is a parasite.
The vulnerable population today consists of firefighters, police officers, municipal workers, State workers, factory workers who have been laid off through no fault of their own because of this weak economy. Those men and women have been struggling trying to make it.
Somebody must stand up for them. They are black, white, brown, they are elderly. Some of them are at an age where it will be difficult for them to get another job. And so somebody must stand up for them, and we have decided that it will be us.
Now, let me just say that these are some weird times. We do have a budget deficit, and we would not at all suggest that we don't need to deal with the budget deficit. What we need to do, however, is deal with it in a way that will protect the vulnerable populations.
Madam Chair, I have a left knee that is artificial, it is a prosthetic, the result of football injuries. And once I recovered and left the hospital after the surgery, my brain automatically forced the rest of my body to pay attention to the sick side of my body. So I automatically, even though I tried not to, did everything I could do to protect my left knee. I even put most of my weight on my right knee.
What I am saying is that our bodies provide us with a message that when some part of our body is vulnerable, is weak, the other part, the strong part, needs to do everything it can to protect the weak part.
The Congressional Black Caucus is saying that our alternative budget does exactly that when you consider the fact that the gap in after-tax income between the richest 1 percent of Americans and the middle and poorest fifths of our country more than doubled between 1979 and 2009.
So we can see that the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer. And when I hear people say we must have shared sacrifice, I disagree.
The poorest people don't need to sacrifice. I am not sure that you can find a single poor person who is responsible for the economic collapse of the last 2 years. Mark Zandi, an economist with unimpeachable Republican credentials, said that 1.7 million people will lose their jobs in the first 2 years if this budget is enacted.
So, Madam Chair, we intend to present our budget now to demonstrate how this body can protect its weak side and still maintain the best of this Republic for the protection of its people.
I reserve the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. CLEAVER. Madam Chair, in closing, I am not accusing anybody of being mean-spirited and wanting to hurt people. I am absolutely convinced that those who support the Republican budget are good and decent Americans. They want the best things for this country. I will never stand on this floor and do that.
But what I am saying is I believe and our caucus believes that their program, their budget, is one that does damage to the vulnerable population of this country. We believe that somebody must stand up and speak for those who are hurting and cannot speak for themselves.
[Time: 22:10]
A budget is a moral document. It is a photograph of what we believe. It is a look into the somebodiness of the United States of America. And when we look at this budget that this Congress will ultimately approve, some budget, it is who we are. It is a biography of who we are. And I am absolutely convinced that the wrong budget--and I think that the budget that is before us is the wrong budget--could create a gash on the soul of America and leave a scar for a long, long time.
Madam Chair, this is a time that we must be careful because if we are not, great damage will be done to the people who can afford the damage the least. I'm talking about children. I'm talking about the elderly. And I'm talking about Americans who live next door to us, people who sit on the pew with us in church. These are people who are going to be hurt by this budget. And I think that the American public, when they come to understand this budget, will come to the conclusion that we're right.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source