Date: 2006-02-15
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. the President gave the annual -State of the Union speech and also released his budget recently. The speech and the budget were short on many important issues that face our families and neighbors every day. I was glad he talked about supporting our troops. and I agree. However. I did not hear a call for creation of additional divisions to give our regular military and reserves more time at home between deployments. He announced no plans to stop extending the enlistments for the young men and women serving our country. some of w hom are serving their third tours in the Middle East. We also need better equipment and training for the people who volunteer to. serve our country. Instead. this budget request maintains and grows weapons systems that are no use to our troops on the ground. rather than adding the manpower we need for Iraq and Afghanistan. and reduces the authorized size of the National Guard by 17.000 soldiers. I did not hear a renewed commitment to.fully fund our veterans health care either. When someone serves and is injured we owe them a debt to make sure they receive health care second to none. President Bushs VA budget request for 2007 does add nearly $3 billion in real appropriations to veterans health care compared to the 2006 budget. However. it does so by charging a new annual enrollment fee for VA care. nearly doubling drug copayments and driving 1.2 million veterans out of the system created specifically for them. A chart in the Presidents budget request anticipates approximately 1.2 million fewer veterans in Priority Groups 7 and 8 in 2007. These groups are forced in this budget request to pay new $250 enrollment fees and nearly double in pharmaceutical copayments. This is not looking out for those who have served ourcountry. The President touched briefly on health care problems in our qountry. Health care is the number one domestic concern of the American people. 46 million of whom lack health insurance. The administrations solution is expanding health savings accounts. HSAs. eliminating State mandates on health insurance policies. and the annual call to federalize medical. malpractice lawsuits. HSAs have not been successful with consumers. An October. 2005. report determined that 1 percent of U.S. adults chose HSAs and only onethird of that 1 percent recommend HSAs to someone else. Another onethird of that percent would like to change plans. HSAs only fit a small portion of our society and have not helped to ensure our 46 million uninsured Americans. Even worse. HSAs will draw healthier. higher income employees out of health insurance pools. leaving the sicker and lower income folks to share the higher risk. The unfortunate result would be increased outofpocket costs for those most in need of affordable health care and a weakened employerbased health insurance system. To solve our health problems. we need bolder leadership. not plans that do not work. Let us expand the State Childrens Health Insurance Program. the CHIP program. to working parents. allow early retirees over 55 to buy into Medicare. and help States with Medicaid costs so that they can expand programs for the uninsured. Decades ago our country made a decision to use employerbased insurance unlike other industrial democracies. We have tried to bridge the gap of what employers can! provide. but we still have 46 million people uninsured. Congress and the administration have a duty to bridge thatgap for Americans. I also did not hear anything in the State of the Union Speech about the administrations efforts to secure pensions. Companies are eliminating traditional pensions or going into bankruptcy to get out of commitments to their employees. At a time when the baby boomer generation is reaching retirement age. we cannot depend on Social Security. especially with an administration who wants to privatize it. The President also did not mention anything on the biggest issues facing Americans. increasing disparity in income. Since World War II. Americans had a history of creating a great middle income majority. We are losing that great middle class as we have more and more millionaires but more and more poor people. In 2001. the median income in 2004 dollars was $46.058. In January of 2006. it was $44.389. almost $2.000 less. Median income Americans are losing ground while median home prices have increased from $139.700 in 2001 to 215.900 in 2004. Health insurance costs have gone up from a monthly average in 2001 of $135 to $222. College tuftion for our children has increased. while government assistance has remained flat. I could go on and on about lower income and high prices. including costs of gas for our cars and utilities to heat and cool our homes. We need a concerted effort by Congress and the administration to reverse this trend that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Middle income Americans are getting poorer. We have real needs in this country. and it is all too clear that the Presidents State of the Union speecllf and the administrations budget have not addressed the concerns of America.