30-Something Working Group
30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP -- (House of Representatives - May 24, 2006)
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I am glad you touched on that theme. It is a pleasure to be here once again for our 30-Something Working Group, where we try to talk about the issues from the perspective of our generation and also talk about the issues important to our generation. And for people in our generation and the point that we are at in our lives, what blows my mind and continues to baffle me since I arrived in the Congress last year was the crushing debt that we are buried under right now, and that is not reversing itself; that there are no efforts on the part of the Republican leadership to reverse course, to turn around and go in the other direction and return to the days when President Clinton was in office. We had a surplus, a budget surplus, when we had no deficit, when we had a much smaller debt in terms of our debt to foreign countries. Of course, we had debt to foreign nations but not nearly what we have today.
We have more debt combined under this President than the 42 other Presidents that we have had previously. And normally we have charts that we can highlight.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Absolutely. The three things I just want to hit on that are on all in that same theme: Last week, we passed a budget led by the Republican leadership here that just continues down that same path of irresponsible priorities; $6 billion cut to Homeland Security over 5 years; $488 million in 2007 alone. Cut the Army National Guard by 17,000 troops. The National Guard, which, if we all recall, the President just talked about deploying to the border, to our Mexican-American border to assist States in border security. On top of that, we are also deploying them to Iraq and Afghanistan. How thin can we spread them? And then on top of that, we are cutting the number of troops we give them.
It cut funding for equipment for firefighters and police; $6 billion cut to veterans' services over 5 years. It tripled health care fees for veterans for TRICARE.
Let's fast forward to the tax reconciliation bill, which is the tax cuts that we made permanent under the Republican leadership's insistence. Let's talk about what that tax cut meant for real people. The tax bill that was signed this week by the President had Americans who made $20,000 a year, they get $2, $2 in their tax break. And when I stand at a town hall meeting and ask folks to raise their hands, Mr. Meek, to let me know, who is it among you who have actually received money in your pocket from the tax breaks that President Bush and the Republican leadership have handed out over the last number of years, in a room full of several hundred people, maybe I get two or three hands. Maybe.
Now, if these tax cuts are targeted like Democrats would design to working families and to people who really needed that money and would actually put it back into the economy so that could revitalize the economy, like buying big ticket items like refrigerators and televisions and other things that would inject cash into the economy instead of investing it, which is what the wealthiest among us would do, then I could understand letting us make those tax cuts permanent all day long, but unfortunately, we do not have any of those tax cuts.
We have tax cuts that puts $2 back in the pockets of people who make $20,000, and Americans who make $40,000, they get a whopping $16, but Americans who make more than $1 million get a thousand times that. They get $42,000. They get to go out and buy a Hummer. They can buy a Hummer. That is how much money someone who makes $1 million gets back, a Hummer, a Mercedes, a Suburban, a gas guzzler, and you cannot buy one of those with $2.
Then let us add insult to injury, and last week there were comments made in this Chamber on this floor that people who make $40,000 a year do not pay taxes. I mean, come on. Do you know anyone that does not pay taxes that makes $40,000?
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. We are acknowledging, we are calling on the carpet the Republican leadership for plunging us into the most debt we have ever been in and piling it up in record time to boot.
We are borrowing and spiraling downward into tremendous debt to other nations, and then, on top of that, we are giving away our oil drilling rights that we are normally paid royalties for by the oil and gas industry. Last year, we passed two bills that basically give away those rights for free. We give them to the oil industry, and subsequently, several months later, they make more profits than any corporation in American history.
What would we do in the alternative? Finally, finally, there is leadership that is willing to step forward and adopt and propose an Innovation Agenda that would pledge to make us energy independent within 10 years. Our energizing American plan that was put together by the Democratic House working group that gets more specific than our Innovation Agenda. It talks about how we would increase production of American-made biofuels, using our cellulosic sources such as switch grass, producing ethanol through corn and possibly even through sugar cane, investing in research and development to improve the use of renewable energy. These are the commitments that Democrats would make.
So, Mr. Speaker, when people on the other side of the aisle throw out that Democrats do not have an agenda, well, here is a piece of it, Mr. Ryan just had a piece of it. There are three stacks of notebook, none of which are full of empty paper, Mr. Speaker, that outline our homeland security proposal, our domestic security proposals, our energy plan.
These are the things that we would address from day one when we are in charge of this Chamber. We would eliminate the corruption. We would make sure that this Chamber is run in a bipartisan way, as Leader Pelosi indicated just last week. We would adopt democracy once again in the United States House of Representatives which, quite honestly, is something I have not seen since the first day I got here, and it is really depressing.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. The Republican agenda today is to say the Democrats do not have an agenda. That is their agenda. That is all they have got. They have got no plan on energy, no plan on health care, no plan on education, no plan on reducing college tuition costs. They have got no plan on immigration. They have got no plans.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. It is like I could just close my eyes, and listening to the Republicans, point fingers and call names at us, I could just close my eyes and it is like I am listening to my twin 7-year-olds fight with each other: Yes, they are; no, they don't; yes, they are; no, they don't. That is all they are----
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. We could do something crazy like collect the royalties from the oil industry and invest it on alternative energy sources like those. We could fund this plan backwards and forwards with the money we did not make them pay us.
That is what is so outrageous
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I want to close with an observation that what has been frustrating to me is that there is no outrage on that side. Everything we are laying out is factual. We are not making it up. So why does the Republican head only appear to go one way, up and down? Yes, sir, Mr. Speaker. I am happy to do whatever you say. Sure, Mr. President. No problem. It would be nice if they had some joints that made their heads go in this direction and their voices could be lifted up against what is going on here. But, sadly, that doesn't happen.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
http://thomas.loc.gov/