Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2012

Floor Speech

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Ms. WATERS. I thank the gentlemen.

Mr. Chairman and Members, the gentleman from Alabama evidently has amnesia. Clinton administration eliminated the deficit and left a balanced budget. It was the Bush administration that created the deficit.

I rise in strong support for this, the Progressive Caucus alternative balanced people's budget. During the last administration, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle maxed out our Nation's credit card for wars and tax cuts for the rich, all the while saying deficits don't matter. Now they are using our deficit crisis as a rationale to undermine programs that they have never supported and push a divisive social agenda that is a sideshow to our budget debate.

Mr. Chairman, this country is not broke. We have spent our money on wars and tax credits for the very rich, and now it is time to entertain the people's budget, a balanced budget.

The Ryan budget breaks our promise to these American families by expecting them to bear the entire burden of deficit reduction, neglecting the fact that just 4 months ago my colleagues on the opposite side of the aisle insisted on $80 billion in tax cuts for the richest 2 percent of individuals in this country.

This is a balanced budget. I ask my colleagues to support this very responsible, balanced budget.

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