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“THE EFFECT ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE OF THE POTENTIAL CRISIS IN THE BUDGET AND CUTS IN SOCIAL PROGRAMS” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H11738-H11739 on Nov. 2, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE EFFECT ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE OF THE POTENTIAL CRISIS IN THE BUDGET
AND CUTS IN SOCIAL PROGRAMS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. Jackson-Lee] is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE. Mr. Speaker, we come to this podium to raise several issues, and so many are before us. I do think in terms of the philanthropic limitations on pressing their points, we do trample on constitutional rights of first amendment speech when we deny the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and United Way to press their issues before the U.S. Congress. I hope we will consider that.
What I would hope that we would also consider as we proceed this week is to not talk about Democrats and Republicans, frankly, but really to talk about the American people and the potential crisis that we are not facing in light of some very argumentative language and mean-spirited language about holding this country hostage, about train wrecks and refusing to lift the debt ceiling, which for many people might sound extremely confusing, but we are not at a point with a budget reconciliation proposal, dominated and proposed by the Republican majority, that cuts $270 billion from Medicare and $182 billion from Medicaid, cuts education, training, and cuts the opportunity for research and development, clearly not a direction this country should go in as it relates to the needs for our young people to be educated, cutting and burdening our students in colleges by increasing the amount of student loan payments they have to make by taxing them during the time they are in college.
We find that really, whatever persuasion the American people are, you will find now cited in the Wall Street Journal that 73 percent of Americans prefer smaller Medicare and education cuts over a 10-year budget.
No one is denying that there should be an opportunity to balance this budget. Most of us in our right mind are concerned about the future of this country, and those of us who have come from local government and State government, I have come from local government in the city of Houston, have balanced budgets. But it is patently unfair as the American people, these are not Democrats and Republicans, who have said 73 percent prefer a 10-year budget plan and much smaller cuts, because they know what they will face as working Americans when their children who are in college, whether it be community college or whether it be a 4-year college or graduate school, will have interest accruing on their student loans. They understand what it means when we have cut 30 percent of research and development, the very crux of creating jobs in America for those who come out with their diploma and are told that there is no employment. They, frankly, know what it means when 61 percent ask for the President of the United States, as I have done by way of a letter to him, to veto this Budget Reconciliation Act.
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My challenge and charges to the Republican majority and to the Speaker is that we should not hold this Nation hostage with respect to the debt ceiling. We have bonds that may be in default, we have the potential for mortgage rates to go up over this period of time, car payments to go up over this period of time, and we are facing a crisis that will not allow us, frankly, to consider the concerns of Americans.
I have to look at, in the summer of 1996 in Houston, TX, the loss of some 6,000 summer jobs for our young people. Now, many have accused those positions that come through the Houstons works program and come through funding through the Department of Labor as being baby-sitting positions.
Well, let me tell my colleagues what it does for high school students who have never been exposed to the work world. It gives them a challenge. It gives them income in many instances to provide for their parents who need to have extra income to make ends meet, it helps expose them to career opportunities, and yes, it sometimes provides them with the simple things like food, clothing, and the opportunity to go back to school in the fall. Yet, because of cuts in programs that have been constructive all over the Nation, job training programs and summer work programs, of which I am a product of, we will have a crisis in the summer of 1996.
Mr. Speaker, this crisis can be avoided if we take a moment to look at this budget reconciliation package and acknowledge that it is the absolutely wrong direction to take this country. We are remembering the 1981 tax cuts of which this $270 billion will be used, and let me say to those who are making under $50,000 and may have two or more children, you will not see any tax cut, for they have cut sizably the earned income tax credit.
Many of our citizens who consider themselves middle income and make
$28,000, they will not receive that benefit, and they have cut the earned income tax credit that has been really a support system and a reward system for those working individuals making under $50,000. We will not get that with the $270 billion in Medicare cuts that are supposed to be for tax cuts for those making over $300,000.
So my point is, let us not hold this Nation, Americans, hostage on this issue of the debt ceiling. It is time to extend it so that we do not go into default, and that we acknowledge that we have a responsibility worldwide to keep this country's system, economic system stable, so that real discussions can be had: Do we want to cut student loans. I mean, frankly, do we want to do that. Do we not want to look reasonably at the Medicare cuts to ensure that Medicare is stable for those of you who are now working Americans, but yet not burden the elderly Americans who would have to pay the higher premiums, and do we want you today to have higher mortgage payments and car payments because we are not frankly dealing with the American people.
Lift the debt ceiling for a while, let us have a budget reconciliation package that really responds to the American public, all of us, some 73 percent who want this country to work.
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