At a news conference this morning, House Democratic Leaders unveiled the Democratic agenda: “Securing America’s Future for all of our Families.” It stresses Democrats’ support for the war on terrorism, and focuses on protecting Social Security, cutting the costs of prescription drugs, protecting employees’ pensions, improving education by reducing class size, and protecting the environment by keeping our air and water clean. House Democratic Whip Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) issued the following statement:
Democrats are committed to securing America’s future, for all our families. The American people deserve a sense of security, not only in the struggle against terrorism, but also at home.
We want to point out to the American people is that there is a difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. Securing America’s future for our children involves their health, their education, and the economic security of their families, which includes the pension security of their grandparents.
On education, the President and other Republicans have spoken about investing in education in broad policy terms, but when it come to Appropriations and the budget, they fall way short of their rhetoric. The Republican budget underfunds the programs in the education bill by $7.2 billion. That bill was referred to as the ‘Leave No Child Behind' act, but the Administration has proposed a ‘Leave Millions of Children Behind’ budget.
Democrats want to invest in school modernization to give our children smaller classes and a better education, and we’re willing to make the investment to do that.
When it comes to Social Security, every Democrat voted last week for a motion to say that the Republican proposal to make the tax cuts permanent could not proceed unless the Congressional Budget Office said that they would not raid the Social Security Trust Fund. Every Democrat voted for that motion, every Republican voted against it.
The same thing is true with the environment. We see that the Republicans are
now reversing policy that requires polluters to pay for the environmental damage
they cause and instead are saying taxpayers should pay for the cleanup.
The list goes on and on. Whether it is the environment, education, Social Security,
or pension security -- there is a clear difference between Democrats and the
Republicans. As the legislative agenda rolls out, we will point this out.
We intend to hold the Republicans accountable for their votes - and report to the American people what they expect and deserve, which is security for their future.
