Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2017, Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2012
Floor Speech
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Mr. MARKEY. I thank the gentleman very much.
I rise in opposition to this Republican attempt to deem their budget passed, just deem it passed so that we can begin with this process. It's just wrong. It's not the way we should be conducting business, but it's the way they have been operating all year.
Recently, radio evangelist Harold Camping calculated that the world would end at precisely 6 p.m. on May 21. Well, he was wrong. But much like Harold Camping's wildly inaccurate predictions, the House Republicans have come up with their own apocalyptic vision, the Republican Rapture. This budget decides who gets lifted up into the economic stratosphere and who gets left behind.
Under this scheme, if you are a millionaire or a billionaire, you get raptured into heaven with all of your tax breaks remaining intact. But if you are Grandma and Grandpa, and you are dependent upon Medicare in order to take care of your health care needs, you get moved to political purgatory. That's their plan.
Now, if you are one of the big five oil companies that are reporting record profits, you get raptured with all of your tax breaks left intact in this budget, which we are debating here today. You keep all of your tax breaks.
But if you are a college kid hoping to get a Pell Grant, no, ladies and gentlemen, you are back in political purgatory. Your educational future is in question.
Now, if you are an insurance company executive and you are now really rapturously happy because of the privatization of Medicare and the incredibly increased profits for the insurance industry, you are up here in heaven. You get raptured. This is the budget we are debating right now. Good news for all these wealthy people.
But if you have Alzheimer's or cancer and you are hoping to find medical breakthroughs, they are cutting the NIH budget, the national institutes of hope budget, to find a cure for those diseases. Your hopes and dreams go to political purgatory.
And if you have any hopes at all of having Medicare be saved, well, their budget guarantees that Medicare gets privatized, that Medicare is ended as we know it.
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Mr. MARKEY. And that Medicare budget is completely and totally smashed.
So there is your debate here today, ladies and gentlemen. Are you with billionaires, Big Insurance, Big Oil? Are you with Grandma and Grandpa, making sure that Medicare remains intact for the years ahead, honoring the promise that we made to them for giving us this great country that we live in today. That's the vote today.
Vote ``yes'' or ``no'' on Grandma, vote ``no'' on that Republican budget, and protect Grandma's health care into the future.
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