Date: 2014-04-09
Speaker: CAROLYN B. MALONEY (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: New York

Mr. Chairman. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman. unfortunately. the budget offered by our Republican colleagues is not. by any stretch of the imagination. the solution to our problems. It is the problem. because this is not a budget. it is a retreat. It is a retreat from the high ideals. noble goals. and bold dreams that have made this country so great. As the author and columnist Nicholas Kristof recently pointed out. a new ranking of livability in 132 countries shows that the United States has fallen to 16th. fallen. But apparently. our Republican friends think that is just a little too high. We now rank 24th in inequality in the attainment of education. But the Republican budget would cut Pell grants that help lowincome students afford college. We rank 29th in life expectancy. and 24th in nutrition and basic medical care. and the Ryan budget would cut funding for food stamps and Medicaid. and raise the eligibility of Medicare. We rank just 70th in health. and Republicans want to repeal the Affordable Care Act and snatch health care coverage away from millions who just received it. This is not a budget. Mr. Chair. This is a call to Americans to dream small and aim low. This is an attempt to shift costs onto the shoulders of the middle class. the young. and the elderly in a way that would cripple our ability to compete. I believe we are a better people than this and a greater Nation. Look at just about any poll on the subject these days. and you can see that Americans are most concerned about jobs and growing our American economy. What the American people want to see from the Congress is a plan that will help accelerate the growth of our economy and create good jobs. but the crushing austerity of the Ryan plan would do just the opposite. This makes no sense because we know what actually works and what actually grows jobs and what doesnt. We have seen it. and we have lived it. The record speaks for itself. It shows whose ideas actually work in the real world and whose dont. Since 1961. the private sector has added a total of 66 million jobs. Twentyfour million of them were added under Republican Presidents. and a whopping 42 million were added under Democratic Presidents. Lets take a look at this chart. Under President Clinton. this country grew a whopping 22.6 million jobs. and he left office running an annual surplus of over $128 billion projected to grow into the trillions. Then. under the 8 years of President Bush. we added only 1.2 million jobswhat a stark differenceand the budget surplus was turned into an annual $1.4 trillion deficit. When President Obama took office. our economy was shedding over 800.000 jobs a month. and the Bush administration left office with the worst job creation record in 75 years. Nevertheless. in the 5 years since President Obama took office. we have created 4.7 million jobs. nearly four times what was created under President Bush. and we have more than halved the annual deficit. The actions swiftly implemented by the President and Democratic Congress quickly turned the economy around. and job losses diminished. and. as this next chart shows. those actions have worked. We have been gaining jobs for the last 49 months. In that time. the economy has added 8.9 million private sector jobs. regaining more than all of the jobs lost during the great recession. This chart shows what I call the deep red Republican valley. where we were shedding over 800.000 jobs a month. Since President Obama took office with his economic plan. we have been growing jobs. Democrats understand that. in order to maintain our leadership in the world economy. America needs to continually sharpen its competitive edge. and we understand that. while investing in the future may carry some risk. refusing to do so carries an ironbound certainty. the certainty of a slow decline and crippling decay. Instead of investing in the future and in the next generation. the Ryan budget guts funding for education. workforce training. critical infrastructure. scientific research. public health. clean energy. advanced manufacturing. and public safety. all the investments needed to make the American economy of tomorrow competitive and put us on the cutting edge. Instead of fully preparing the next generation for tomorrows economy. the Ryan budget cuts funding for early childhood education. K12 education. special education. and higher education. It slashes grants and charges students more interest on their college loans. It lets the higher education tax cut expire. saddling our young people with even more student loan debt. and we know now that student loan debt is now larger than credit card debt in our country. It is a crippling concern. Sadly. the cuts extend far beyond education. The Ryan budget proposes draconian cuts to nutrition assistance. home heating assistance. and rental assistance. SNAP. which provides food security for millions of American children. is cut more than $135 billion. and 200.000 fewer women and children would get basic nutrition through the WIC program. We can all agree that the economic recovery has been too slow. and yet this Republican budget cuts critical investments to create jobs and enhance our competitiveness. In 2015 alone. the budget cuts $52 billion from efforts to update our crumbling transportation infrastructure. That amounts to over 1.5 million jobs. The budget cuts the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation. threatening our edge in medical and scientific innovation. The Republican budget even eliminates funding for the arts. humanities. and public broadcasting. which support the institutions that enrich our lives and chronicle our cultural and artistic heritage. Further. the Ryan budget would cut health care funding and increase costs for seniors. It would raise the age to qualify for Medicare to 67 and bring back the dreaded doughnut hole that leaves too many seniors to choose between their medication and putting food on the table. After nearly a century of talking about doing it. we have finally expanded health care to cover more Americans. Yes. there have been bumps along the way. as there have been with the implementation of transformational social programs. like with Medicare and Part D prescription drugs. but the important thing is that it is working. Already. 7 million people have signed up through the health insurance marketplaces. and another 3 million young adults have been able to remain on their parents health plans until they turn 26. Under the Ryan plan. these 10 million Americans who thought. at long last. they had reliable and affordable health care insurance would have it snatched away from them. but it is even worse than that. By 2024. a staggering total of 40 million people would become uninsured under the Ryan plan. The CBO projects that 25 million people. who would have gained coverage under the Affordable Care Act. will. instead. have to go without it. and there are another 14 to 20 million people who would lose insurance as a result of the block granting and Medicaid cutting laid out in the Ryan budget. After 53 failed attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. the Ryan budget hopes to succeed in taking us backwards to those dark days when people with preexisting conditions couldnt get coverage. when protections against lifetime limits didnt exist. Nocost preventive services. like mammograms and cervical cancer screenings. would be no more. It would take us back to a time when women were charged more just because they were women and when the insurance companies called the shots. From the smallest children to the oldest seniors who rely on Medicaid for health care and to cover longterm health bills. the Ryan Medicaid cuts will negatively affect literally millions. Women who make up almost 70 percent of adult Medicaid beneficiaries will especially feel the sting. The most vulnerable will be hurt the most. Mr. Chair. budgets are about choices. and we face a truly watershed choice now. We can choose to continue to do things that have lifted the hopes of millions. provided unparalleled opportunities. and made our country the envy of the world. We can choose to continue to help those who need it the most and provide a measure of care to those who have the least. or we can choose to go down a radically different road. concede the future to the bold. defer to others. expect less. and turn our faces away from the downtrodden and the dispossessed. Yes. we can make that choice. but please. Mr. Chair. lets stop referring to this as a budget and call it what it really is. a retreat. an act of surrender. It is giving up on the America we have always known. This is not a blueprint. It is a black eye. We are a better people than this and a greater Nation. I urge my colleagues to vote "no." America does not retreat. I reserve the balance of my time.