Congressional Budget for the United States Government for the Fiscal Year 2006
CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET FOR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2006 -- (Senate - March 14, 2005)
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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise tonight to talk about the budget that is now before the Senate. We have to remember that a budget is really a statement of priorities. It talks about how we choose to allocate our resources, and it says a lot about the kind of country we want to be and whether we want communities where opportunities are available to a few or communities where opportunities are available for everyone.
When I was growing up, my father was a World War II veteran. When I was in my teens, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Pretty soon he was no longer able to work, and my mother had to go to work to support seven kids. Fortunately, with some help from our Government, she got the help she needed to get a good job to take care of us and to take care of my dad. Without that kind of help, I would not be sitting here tonight as a Senator.
My family is not alone. Our country has a proud tradition of helping those who fall on hard times and helping them to reach their full potential. That tradition comes from fundamental American values, and one of those values is a belief in the importance of community.
The American philosophy says we all count and we are all in this together. It says that if I am doing well personally but my neighbors are suffering, I am not doing so well after all either. Today, those community values, those American values, are under attack by a budget that places too little value on the things ordinary Americans need. In doing so, this budget imperils the American dream for every one of us. To keep the American dream alive, I believe we have to put America first. For our Nation to be strong and continue to be an example to the world when it comes to creating opportunities for a better life, we have to be strong at home.
Unfortunately, this budget that is now before us does not put America first. This budget does not allow us to provide the kind of support Americans need in a number of critical areas, ranging from support for our veterans, to education, to health care, to the environment, to funding for our rail system. When this budget cuts funding to these priorities, it puts opportunities out of reach for ordinary working Americans who play by the rules and want nothing better than a chance for a better life for their families. They deserve the chance at a better life, and it is our responsibility to do all we can to give them that chance by making the right investments so they can be safe, healthy, and productive. We must not fail in or overlook this responsibility to put America first. Future generations of Americans are relying on us to make the right decisions now, and the fact is we still have the opportunity to do the right thing in this budget that is before us.
My first concern about this budget is that it is fiscally irresponsible. While the President and this Congress have consistently prioritized tax breaks in a time of war, the war itself has not been enough of a funding priority. It simply astounds me that this budget does not fund the true and full cost of the war in Iraq, which includes rebuilding. It also includes the cost of taking care of our veterans when they return home from their missions. At a time when our Nation is at war, our top priority has to be to support our men and women in uniform. I am deeply concerned that this budget fails to do so. Instead, we are asked to keep the cost of war offline as we pass that cost on to our children, our grandchildren, and future generations of Americans. These costs are knowable. We have been there for years now, and the costs should be reflected in our budget.
This budget underfunds veterans' needs by nearly $3 billion, failing in our commitment to provide the health care and benefits they have been promised in return for the sacrifice they are making for all of us. We have an obligation to care for those who have taken care of us, and, unfortunately, this budget does not meet that obligation.
Access to first-class care should be a reality for all veterans, especially while our Nation is at war. This budget may contain a few steps in the right direction, but sadly it does not go far enough to meet the needs of our veterans. If this budget is enacted, it will severely damage veterans health care. Payroll and inflation increases for doctors, nurses, and medications cost more than $1 billion, but this budget proposes to give the VA only half of what it needs.
To make up for this shortfall, the budget forces more than 2 million middle-income veterans to pay more than double for their needed medications and to pay a $250 enrollment fee. In addition, this budget actually continues to ban some veterans from coming to the VA for care, and so far under this flawed proposal 192,260 veterans have been turned away across the country, including more than 3,000 in my home State of Washington. That sends the wrong message to our troops who are serving us overseas.
They need to know that we are there for them when they return home. This budget also imperils the relationship between the VA and the States. The VA has supported the cost of veterans residing in State VA nursing homes since the Civil War. Yet this budget calls on States to cover the entire cost for many veterans in these cost-effective nursing homes.
To make this budget add up, this proposed budget calls for $590 million in unspecified efficiencies. That means thousands of nurses and other providers are going to be cut; thousands of nursing home beds are going to be shuttered; and more than a million veterans are no longer going to be able to come to the VA for the health care they were promised and they deserve.
This budget falls very short in providing the general public with the health care they need. Today there are 45 million Americans who are uninsured. Without the safety net of Medicare and Medicaid, those numbers would be far greater. Let's take Medicaid as an example. Medicaid provides insurance to 40 million Americans and covers 55 percent of poor children. It also covers significant numbers of disabled, of elderly, and it provides the bulk of long-term care. Far too many Americans rely on Medicaid to defund it now.
Whatever the final number of the proposed cuts, and even if we call those improved flexibility, people are going to be hurt badly. The fact is, we should not forget that already-strapped States are going to be left to make up the shortfall because of what we do here. That is not right, and I hope we can correct it as we go through the amendment process.
Let me also talk about education. We had an amendment a short while ago, offered by Senator Bingaman. I think all of us need to remember that States are being overburdened by cuts in our educational system. This is another area where I believe this budget fails us as a community and it reflects the wrong priorities. It fails to provide the support necessary to build a workforce with the skills and education necessary so we can pass on a strong and secure economy.
This budget will cut educational funding for the first time in the past decade. It is going to eliminate 48 programs totaling $4.3 billion--programs our children rely on. The programs that have been cut include critical early intervention and college readiness programs, programs such as GEAR UP and TRIO that have been so successful.
This budget also fails employers because it fails to provide the funding we need to bring skilled workers into tomorrow's workforce and to keep our economy growing by eliminating the $1.3 billion Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Program. That is a bad move for students who are entering the workforce, it is a bad move for employers, and a bad move for the future of our economy.
The supporters of the underlying budget say it does not contain the assumptions of the cuts. But appropriators will not have the option to increase or even maintain current levels of funding in critical educational programs if we do not at least restore the funding for the programs that have been cut.
I offered an amendment in the Budget Committee to restore these cuts, and it failed on a party-line vote, just like the vote tonight in the Senate. We need to remember these cuts are real. They are going to affect real people.
Just last week, one of the last things we did was to reauthorize, here in the Senate, the Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act, while at the same time the Republicans on the Budget Committee voted down my amendment that would have restored the $1.3 billion that program needs to make it work. We are now considering a budget without that amendment.
There are some increases for education in this budget, but they are very deceptive. For example, instead of fulfilling the promise of No Child Left Behind, this budget funds a meager 1.3 percent increase to No Child Left Behind and underfunds it by $12 billion.
This budget increases funding for title I, which is the program that funds disadvantaged students, by 4.7 percent, but that is also very deceptive. There is a shortfall of over $9 billion in this program. That concerns me, as someone who knows. We have a responsibility to make sure the generations that come after us have the skills they need to be productive so we will have a strong country that we can all count on in the future.
Another area of deep concern for me is this budget's failure to fund Amtrak. This budget sets the overall levels for domestic discretionary spending at the level included in the President's budget. That proposal includes his anticipated zero amount for Amtrak's traditional subsidy and $360 million for continuation of commuter service. If this budget gets adopted, I do not know how we are going to keep Amtrak operating next year. If this system shuts down, we will hurt 25 million passengers, people who rely on the Amtrak system to get to work, to get home, and almost 20,000 employees. Bankrupting Amtrak will be the wrong move for the people who depend on the rail system for their livelihood, for their mobility, and for their quality of life.
I am also really disappointed this budget includes language allowing for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This improper use of the Senate's budget authority circumvents the appropriate avenue for addressing such a critically important and sensitive question.
Drilling in the Arctic is controversial and should be debated in the context of an energy bill. It has no place in this budget resolution, especially as the overinflated revenues are based on unrealistic expectations of oil and gas recovery.
I agree we have to work to achieve energy independence. But the fact is, energy independence can be achieved by tightening fuel economy standards for passenger cars, especially light trucks and sport utility vehicles, and the greater use of renewable energy sources and further focus on energy efficiency will do more to lessen reliance on foreign oil than drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Although we were not able to remove this unnecessary provision in the markup, I know an amendment is going to be offered, and I hope we can remove it on the floor.
Before I close, I do want to mention that this budget does not do enough to support our Nation's farmers. When Congress passed the 2002 farm bill, it was hailed as providing new economic development opportunities for rural areas and for ensuring that farmers have a safety net to get them through the hard times. This budget will unravel that safety net by asking farmers, rural communities, and the poor to foot the bill for the support and opportunity that it is our responsibility to provide. In my State alone, with farmers from Washington State reeling from years of low prices and natural disasters and closed foreign markets, this is the time we should be providing a leg up, not cutting back on research and investment.
These are just a few examples of where this budget shortchanges ordinary Americans and does not put America first. I have other concerns with this budget and I will address them throughout the process, but tonight I wanted to register my deep concern that the priorities in this budget proposal are out of line with the challenges we face in this country in these difficult times. The sense of community that makes our Nation great, the feeling that we are all in this together is what got my family through its toughest times. It is what our country needs now more than ever. I believe that should be reflected in our Federal budget.
I believe we can do better, and I will work with my colleagues throughout this process on amendments to help develop a responsible budget that meets our country's needs and really reflects our true values.
I yield the floor.
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