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Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2006

Date: March 17, 2005
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Unemployed and Low-Income Entitlements and the Safety Net Health Insurance


CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006 -- (House of Representatives - March 17, 2005)

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to this budget. The budget should encourage fiscal, personal and social responsibility at the same time it moves us further down the road to making. opportunity real for people. In that sense, it should reflect the values and priorities of Americans. But by deepening income inequality and raising the barriers for those working to do better, this budget does neither. If anything, it reflects priorities that are out of step with ordinary Americans.

By calling for $1.8 trillion in tax cuts, primarily to the wealthiest Americans, the president's budget compromises both our ability to face our most pressing challenges and strengthen the social safety net that might rescue those living in poverty. Experts estimate that over the next 75 years, the cost of the tax cuts for the top 1 percent of households alone is nearly equivalent to the shortfall in Social Security--this at a time when another 1.3 million Americans fell into poverty last year.

And with this budget's cuts to Medicaid, job training, veterans health care, and child care will only exacerbate those startling figures. The decision to eviscerate Medicaid by as much as $20 billion will leave many low-income families with nowhere to turn for medical care, and many seniors with no way to afford long-term care. Its growth in recent years is simply a reflection of its success in providing care for the thousands of Americans who would otherwise have joined the ranks of the uninsured during the economic downturn.

And states are already struggling to keep up. This year, the governor in my state of Connecticut proposed increased co-payments and premiums for families receiving SCHIP. If the president succeeds in cutting Medicaid, there will be no way for states to make up the shortfall. We cannot let Medicaid fall victim to its own success.

Mr. Chairman, the cost of this Administration's poor decisions should not be borne by those least able to afford it. Budgets are moral documents. They should promote, first and foremost, the common good of the Nation. And turning our backs on that now as this budget does is not only bad policy--it is immoral.

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