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Budgets Are About Values

Volume
Volume 158 , Number 51
Pages
Pages H1648
Legislative Body
House
Date
Wed, March 28, 2012

(Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Rep. Gerald E. Connolly

legislator photo
Party
D
State
VA

Mr. Speaker, budgets are about values. The budget we are about to debate today, the Republican budget, does not reflect American values. It is a budget for the survival of the fittest. It cuts the highest tax bracket from 35 percent to 25 percent. That's going to add $5 trillion to the debt. In order to compensate for that, this budget cuts $5.7 trillion in domestic discretionary spending.

If this budget were ever to become law, it would push back all the progress we've made over generations in terms of malnutrition, in terms of poverty rates, in terms of protecting our seniors. It is a budget that would make Charles Darwin blush. It is a budget not worthy of this House, and it is a budget I hope will be resoundingly rejected because of the values that do not reflect America at its best.