Date: 1995-12-20
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I have listened with interest. I. too. am tired with the rhetoric. No matter which way you put it. there are real people out there being affected. I am from a regional city with many. many. many Federal employees. I. too. have gotten messages: Stick with the President. I am from a city and a district that has one of the most wellknown medical schools. one of the most wellknown dental schools. A medical school that has four Nobel Prize winners there now in my district. None of them are for these cuts. All of them understand that when we put the bottom line to it. there are a few more dollars being added. So no. there is not a cut as such. but what we have forgotten to be honest with the people about. there are a million more people going into the system to share these dollars. When you put that many more people into a system. those dollars will not spread broadly enough. When these dollars do not spread. the individuals see it as a cut because the services are simply not there. We can call it whatever we want to call it. but when the services are not there. the choices are not there. and people are having to pay more out of their pockets. When offsprings of these senior citizens are having to pick up the tab. when spouses are having to give up their job security and their homes to pay bills. they see it as a cut. We can count the dollars. whatever we want to do. it is a cut for the people. They feel it. They know it when they feel it. Mr. Speaker. we are doing this just the opposite than what America has promised. We are punishing the poor and the most vulnerable to help the rich. That is not the way it has been intended. You can say that we are giving a tax break to persons making V75.000 a year. but when you are taking away from those who are making $25.000 or less. that is punishment of the most vulnerable population. When we take away Head Start. when we take away education funds. we are doing just the opposite of what our society needs to cope with tomorrow. Any way you look at it. that is hurting all of us. because we hurt our future. Every nation that is doing better economically has a history of investing in their human resources. That Is their people. We are refusing to do that. We are in the shape of a Third World nation. but it is OK if you are rich. It is the poor. the disabled. the elderly. that are being affected. and our children. which is this Nations future. Anyone who thinks the rich children are safe while we let poor children wander around in the wilderness of poverty. hunger. and the lack of education is in a different world than reality. Every childs future is at stake. not just the wealthy. We can get up here and talk all we want to talk about saving the future for our children. taking away the price tag. Let me assure you. when we remove food. when we remove shelter. when we subject the poorest children to water that is not safe. food that is not safe. and continue to dump in the neighborhoods where air is not safe. do not think we are not going to pick up the tab. We are going to pick it up through hospital bills. we will pick it up through prisons. but we have the responsibility and we will pick it up somehow. We simply cannot forget the poor in our Nation just to keep making the wealthy wealthier. It does not work. It does not work. no matter what gender. no matter what color. no matter what the origin of birth. It does not work for any of us. It is time for all of us to come to the table. forget the rhetoric. forget we are going to. do just a revolution for the sake of revolution. We have to think about human beings. These are human beings we are affecting. These are living. breathing people. I say to you. it is time. it is time for us for give attention to the most vulnerable.