Date: 2003-02-26
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman from North Carolina for yielding. Mr. Speaker. this is actually the first time I have made remarks on this floor. and I deliberated. as I am sure many new Members do. over what subject I shoulI address first. and I can think of no more important matter facing this Congress than the future economic health of our Nation and what investments we decide to make for the common good. The actions we take here this session will affect the wellbeing of Americans for generations to come. We need to adopt an economic plan that will put America back to work and a budget that reflects the priorities of the American people. The budget plan submitted by the President a few weeks ago. it is a long document filled with thousands of numbers. Like most budgets. it is not exciting reading unless you like to put on the green eye shades. But it is probably the most important document we will work with this year as Members of Congress. because just as each family has to make many tough decisions about their household budgets. so must we make the tough decisions for our entire American family. And how we decide to invest our collective resources should tell us a lot about what *we care about as a people and who we are as a people. The budgets and economic plans we adopt here this session I hope will reflect the priorities of the American people. Mr. Speaker. I have listened carefully to the people in my district. and I think that their priorities are the same as priorities of Americans around this country. They want a country where every child has the opportunity to get a great start in life with a firstrate education. They want a country where every American has access to quality health care. They want an America where every American and every individual who is ready to roll up his or her sleeves and go to work can find a job. And they want to know that their government is taking all reasonable steps to protect our homeland and be prepared to respond to national emergencies. These are simple things that we all want for our families. We want them for our neighbors. we want them for our fellow Americans. We are a great Nation. and we can do these things. But to (1o so we are going to have to work with the President to change the course that he has charted with the economic plan he has submitted and the budget thpt he has proposed to Congress. Just a few weeks ago I had the privilege to attend and sit in this Chamber when the President delivered his State of the Union address. I was sitting right over there. I was very eager to hear what he had to say. Very early in his speech. he made the following statement: "We will not deny. we will not ignore. we will not pass along our problems to other Coilgresses. to other Presidents. to other generations." I must say. when I heard that statement I nearly fell out of my chair. because the budget and the economic plan proposed by the President does exactly what he says he does not want to do. It does ignore our problems. and. if we do not fix those problems. we will simply be passing the buck to future Congresses. to future Presidents. and to future generations. Let us look at education. Last year with great fanfare the President signed the Leave No Child Behind Act. But the ink was barely dry before the administration submitted a budget that fell well short of the promised funding. When you leave the funding behind. you also leave millions of children behind. and leave them with nothing but broken promises. The Presidents budget for the coming fiscal year promise falls $9 billion short of what had been authorized. and it is a terrible message to send to our school children and to our teachers. Let us look at health care. The Presi(lent has made no meaningful proposal to address the problem of the 41 million Americans who have no health insurance. Apparently. the Bush administration proposes to leave this problem to future Congresses. to future Presidents and future generations. And how about domestic security? The Presidents proposed budtet ignores the needs outlined by the heads of his own agencies. The U.S. Customs Service. the Coast Guard. the Department of Energy. they have all said that they need more resources to meet the threat than the President has proposed in his budget. So what has the President proposed? What is the Presidents top domestic priority? We have heard tonight. another huge tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the superwealthy. Apparently the administration has decided that the most pressing domestic problem. the one issue that cannot wait. is that the superwealthy are paying too much in taxes. And this comes on the heels of the $1.4 trillion tax cut in 2001 that disproportionately benefits already the very wealthy. And dont be fooled by averages. Sure. when you combine the estimated tax break of $325.000 that Bloomberg News says Vice President Cheney will receive. and others with very high incomes with the small tax breaks that most will receive. you get an average refund of over $1.000. Thats like saying if Bill Gates were elected to the House of Representatives. on average. all 435 members in this chamber would be multimillionaires. Its a great statistic. but nobody is really any better oft. What is the result? What is the result of the Presidents tax plan? Even the administration officials have conceded it will do virtually nothing to help get the economy going right now. to help stimulate our economy. to get people back to work. and the real result. as we have seen. will be rivers of red ink and rising interest rates. The Presidents plan would result in a $304 billion deficit this year. and his plans will lead to the sharpest reversal in Americas fiscal fortunes in history. We have gone from a projected $5.6 trillion surplus over 10 years to a projected $2.1 trillion deficit. and that does not even include the cost of war in Iraq and the aftermath. As our colleague from Illinois stated. just this week we have promised Turkey $24 billion. and that before the conflict has even begun. This administration has not begun to come clean on the costs of war. So who is going to pick up this mountain of debt? In the end. it is the American people who will always be left holding the bag. And there are only two ways to deal with the debt in the long term. We all know that. Either you raise taxes on our children in the next generation. or you deeply cut expenditures. And as our colleague from Virginia just pointed out. where you have to go to cut expenditures to make up these deficits are Medicare and Social Security. There is no other way to do it. The President is already using the funds from the Social Security trust funds to pay for his tax cuts. The lockbox we all heard so much about. well. it was picked so long ago. and the raid is on. The Presidents plan is a guided missile aimed at Social Security and Medicare. and it is not just the money in the trust fund that will be lost. we are also going to lose the trust of the American people. So. Mr. Speaker. I am very concerned with the reckless economic course that the President has set. It does exactly what he said he did not want to do. It ignores our very real needs and passes on the burdens of tax cuts to Social Security. Medicare. future congresses and future generations. I believe his plan is out of touch with the true hopes and aspirations of the American people. We have an obligation to confront these issues squarely. as we are talking about tonight. We need to talk straight to the American 11373 people. and I hope this Congress. before* we get out. will adopt an economic plan and a budget that reflects the true priorities of the American people and does not pass the buck to future generations.