Washington, D.C. - Mr. Speaker, I rise today in forceful opposition to this reckless and misguided budget reconciliation package.
At their heart, budgets are about our priorities. And the priorities we choose reflect the values we hold dear.
Mr. Speaker, I do not believe this budget represents the priorities of the American people – and it flies directly in the face of the values that have always made this nation shine.
First of all, let’s dispense with the fiction that this measure is some kind of down payment on the majority’s newfound commitment to fiscal responsibility. In point of fact, the net effect of these spending cuts – when paired with their accompanying tax cuts – will be to actually increase the deficit by $20 billion. So much for fiscal responsibility.
And where are these cuts coming from? Are we scaling back the billions in excess payments to HMOs and drug companies in the Medicare bill? Or the billions in tax breaks for corporate interests in the FSC/ETI bill? Or the billions in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry in the energy bill? Of course not.
Instead, in the aftermath of a lethal hurricane, with stagnant wages and rising poverty, 45 million Americans uninsured, and unprecedented global competition, we are slashing Medicaid for the poor, food stamps for the hungry and financial assistance to families trying to afford college.
This budget is a disgrace.
Because I sit on the Education and Workforce Committee, I want to say a word about the Repubilcans’ unprecedented Raid on Student Aid.
When the Higher Education Act was signed into law in 1965, it began a forty year federal commitment to throw open the doors of higher education to every college-ready student, regardless of his or her family’s income. It was the right thing to do for our students – and the smart thing to do for our country.
You see, in addition to the importance of giving every child the opportunity to reach his or her full potential, the reality is that college graduates earn $1 million more over their lifetimes than their counterparts who don’t attend college. That’s an enormous return on the taxpayers’ original investment – an investment that is only going to become even more important as we compete in the global marketplace of the 21st century.
Which is why it is simply astonishing that this package includes the single largest cut to federal student aid in the forty-year history of the Higher Education program. By draining $15 billion out of student financial assistance, we are effectively tacking $5,800 onto the cost of college for today’s average student. We are making college less affordable at a time when we should be doing precisely the opposite. Predictably, the result will be fewer people going to college.
The Congressional Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance has already projected that financial barriers will prevent 4.4 million high school graduates from attending a four-year public college over the next decade, and another two million high school graduates from attending any college at all. This reconciliation package is going to make that statistic much, much worse.
And for what? To pay – or I should really say partially pay – for tax cuts, over 50% of which go to the top .2% of households already earning over $1 million a year.
Mr. Speaker, if the choices in our budgets reflect the values and priorities of the people doing the choosing, this process is an illuminating one indeed.
I yield back the balance of my time.