Providing for Consideration of H.R. 5652, Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act of 2012

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this bill, which chooses to slash programs that help struggling families get back on their feet without closing a single tax loophole or eliminating a single special interest subsidy.

Our budget should reflect our values and, as many in the faith community have argued, it should advance the moral responsibilities of the Nation to provide for the common good. I note that the Catholic Bishops just sent a letter concluding that ``the proposed cuts to programs in the Republican budget reconciliation fail this basic moral test.'' I'm pleased that the bishops are speaking out, as they should.

Forty percent of the total cuts here come from cutting assistance to low- and moderate-income families, including food stamps, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and social services for vulnerable children and elderly and disabled people. But instead of eliminating big agricultural subsidies where people don't have to plant a seed and they get paid, this budget would cause more than 200,000 children to lose their school lunch and would cut the food stamp program by $36 billion. That means 46 million Americans, one-half of whom are children, would see their benefits cut, and 2 million Americans would lose them entirely. This, at a time when one in seven seniors faces the threat of hunger and one in five children right here in America--a land of plenty--face a similar risk. They are going to bed hungry in the United States of America. We know the impact of hunger and malnutrition: lower performances at school, poor growth, and an immune system less able to fend off illness.

Instead of ending subsidies to big oil companies, this budget eliminates the Social Services Block Grant, which provides childcare assistance to low-income working mothers, addresses child abuse, and provides care for the elderly and disabled. About 23 million people, half of them children, would lose services.

Instead of ending tax breaks that allow corporations to ship jobs overseas, this budget cuts Medicaid, slashes the Children's Health Insurance Program, and forces 350,000 Americans to forego health care coverage provided by the health care reform.

Instead of asking millionaires to pay the same tax rates as middle class families, this budget makes children who are U.S. citizens but have immigrant parents ineligible for the child tax credit, harming 2 million families and 4.5 million children who are United States citizens. They end the Medicare guarantee for seniors in this Nation.

These cuts have a catastrophic effect on the most vulnerable in our Nation, and for what? All to protect special interest subsidies and tax breaks for the richest members of our society. My friends, it's $150,000 for the average millionaire in a tax cut. That's what we're talking about in this piece of legislation. It is wrong. Budgets are about choices, about values. And this bill exposes exactly what this majority is all about.

We need to pass legislation that strengthens and rebuilds the middle
class of this country, creates jobs, invests in rebuilding our infrastructure, supports manufacturers, and restores fairness to our Tax Code. This reverse Robin Hood agenda of the House majority fails in every single regard, and I urge my colleagues to oppose it.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. DeLAURO. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

The fact of the matter is that there are choices, and the majority refuses to make those choices.

Let's not provide the tax cuts for people who are making over $250,000 in this Nation. Let us pull back from Afghanistan in an orderly way and save the money. Let us cut the subsidies for those who are sending the jobs overseas.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source