Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2012

Floor Speech

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Mr. DOGGETT. This budget is just not my cup of tea. When the Republicans use the terms ``modernize'' or ``reform,'' what they really have in mind is a four letter word: less--less retirement security, less health security, less economic security.

This budget does not share the sacrifice. It focuses the pain on the young, on the very old, on those who are trying to climb up the economic ladder, or just barely prevent themselves from slipping backward.

``Fair and balanced,'' that's a most inaccurate media logo, but it's a spot-on description of the budgetary path we ought to be on. Our budget should be balanced, but not unfairly on the backs of those least able to bear it, like our elderly in nursing homes. It's troubling enough that this Republican budget demands even more tax cuts for those at the top and our largest corporations. But what's truly outrageous is that they seek balance by cutting the opportunity for our young people to get all the education they are willing to work for.

How can our economy be second to none when Republicans again and again turn to education to cut first? Nor can you fix this budget or make up revenue lost by squeezing so much out of those on fixed incomes. We need to be creating jobs with job training and education and infrastructure investment.

The size of our deficit, the level of our taxes, those are important, but they are not the sole lens through which the strength of America should be viewed. We want an America where the young have educational opportunity, where the not so young have the dignity of their old age, and a bigger middle class shares in the success of our country. To secure our long-term future, every American can give a little. But this unfair proposal asks little from those with much, and so much from those who have so little.

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