Appointment of Conferees on S. Con. Res. 11, Concurrent Resolution on the Budget, Fiscal Year 2016
Floor Speech
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Mr. Speaker, I could just sit down and say I agree with everything that the gentleman has said, but I want to add my voice to this debate and rise to support the Democratic motion to instruct conferees.
As Mr. Van Hollen has said, there are provisions in the Senate version that are very, very worthy of our adopting. There is the reserve fund on paid sick leave, and it also rejects the House provision on Medicare premium support, the vouchers.
I have been a member of this Budget Committee for over 5 years, and I can tell you that, while I have an appetite for leftovers, this has just been warmed over too many times. This budget is just another variation of the same themes that we have seen in the past several years.
What is this thing? The majority party has recommitted themselves to benefit the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans while balancing the budget on the backs of the poor.
Now, I know there are many people--unfortunately, on both sides of the aisle--who are not all that concerned about the poor. They figure that the poor have done this to themselves; but what has the middle class done to deserve being hollowed even more while we provide tax breaks for the wealthiest two-tenths of 1 percent?
What have hard-working men and women and cities and mayors all over this country done so that we just ignore infrastructure improvements, ignore devolving money to the States, all in the name of providing tax breaks for the richest of the rich?
Now, the commonsense approach would be to adopt our Democratic motion to instruct conferees, and it would be very much in league with the bipartisan actions we have seen over in the Senate. It has been historic, miraculous, to see 61 Senators--both Senators from my State, both parties--voting to establish a deficit neutral reserve fund to allow workers to earn paid sick leave. It is a filibuster-proof majority over there.
Paid sick leave is good for Americans, the 13 million working men and women who don't have paid sick leave when they need it. Millions are unable to take care of their sick kids, their parents, or their spouses because they can't afford to do it.
Workers have agonizing choices when their kids fall ill. Nearly a quarter of working adults have reported that they have lost or come close to losing their job, Mr. Speaker, for taking sick time.
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I will use it expeditiously.
I mean, 3 1/2 days of pay loss is equivalent to a month of groceries. People can't afford to do it. It is not just good for people, it is good for our economy as well. People won't use the emergency room as much. There are 1.3 million emergency room visits every year because we don't have sick leave. People won't come to work and pass communicable diseases with paid sick leave.
Again, the Medicare voucher is just a sham, Mr. Speaker. Senior citizens and people with disabilities rely on this for their health security. I guess the Republicans have said it time and again that they would like to see Medicare wither on the vine, and adopting the provisions in the House budget will in fact accomplish that.
I urge my colleagues to vote for the motion to instruct conferees.
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