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Budget Reconciliation Will Bleed the Economic
Life Right Out of Ordinary Americans
House of Representatives - House Committee on Ways and Means
November 15, 2005

The following are prepared remarks that McDermott spoke from at the House Committee on Ways and Means markup meeting on H.R 4297, the Republican Budget Reconciliation Resolution.

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Mr. Chairman, let’s start by putting this debate into perspective.

Almost 9 of every 10 Americans earn less than $100,000 each year. And about the best we can say about how these Americans will fare under Republican Reconciliation is this: it just keeps getting worse.

Let’s go to the first slide. The math is the math; Cutting taxes on capital gains and dividend payments will primarily benefit the wealthiest in our society, households earning more than a million dollars a year.

As the slide shows, the vaunted Republican claim of reaching out to all Americans doesn’t hold water.

And, Mr. Chairman, when the going gets tough, the Republicans get even tougher on average Americans. Republicans intend to reduce spending on vital programs that help low and moderate income families most.

The draconian spending cuts that Republicans want will bleed the economic life right out of ordinary Americans. $600 million in cuts to foster families, who earn less than $100,000, will make a mockery of so called tax cuts. And it only gets worse.

If we consider the proposed reduction in SSI payments, the slice of the pie is beginning to look like someone suffering from malnutrition. And it’s not over, yet.

Republican reconciliation removes 300,000 people from the federal Food Stamp program. That’s taking food right off the table.

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A mere 1% of the tax benefit is left for the average American family- and they’re not through yet, because the Republicans intend to implement a guaranteed plan to reduce child support payments that are collected.

The Congressional Budget Office has told us that over the next five years about $8 billion fewer dollars will be collected for child support and 80% of this reduction will come from families that make less than $50,000 per year.

After this cut, any tax benefit that the Republicans are trying to sell to the average American is wiped-out. Eviscerated.

But it’s not just that Average Americans get no benefit, it’s that they actually lose what they have today. Cutting $14 billion in federal student loan assistance may not be noticed in the rarefied air of millionaires.

But 84% of student loans last year were given to students that come from households with annual earnings of less than $100,000. 84% gasping for air that isn’t there any more.

Only the most affluent of Americans will benefit from the Republican reconciliation measure. For the other 9 out of 10 Americans, it’s so-long, good luck, don’t bother to write.

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Republican reconciliation is just a new package for an old Republican Congress. They’ve been enacting shortsighted, immoral tax cuts since President Bush took office.

The Republican Congress rubber-stamped the 2001 Tax Cut. They rubber-stamped the 2002 and 2003 tax cut. They were the first Congress to ever pass a tax cut during a time of war. The first in our nation’s history. And they followed it up by a corporate giveaway last June. It was Christmas in June for corporate America.

As a result of these misguided policies, we’ve got a record budget deficit and a record trade deficit, that even the chairman of the Federal Reserve says is unsustainable.

But here we are today, watching Republicans rubber stamp what ever President Bush wants. You’re stamping red ink all over a blue country. People will notice, and people will remember. After all, even millionaires have a heart - and a conscience.