Formatting necessary for an accurate reading of this text may be shown by tags (e.g., <DELETED> or <BOLD>) or may be missing from this TXT display. For complete and accurate display of this text, see the PDF.
[Pages S1770-S1771]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Budget Proposal
Madam President, yesterday the Trump administration released its
annual budget. These Trump budget requests have become so outlandish,
so removed from reality, that even Republicans in Congress can't work
with that budget and can't treat them seriously. They are essentially
statements of principle from an administration that doesn't care about
governing. What does it care about? What are its priorities? That is
what they talked about because I bet they know not a single Republican
would vote for the budget.
We looked at the budget and what it would mean for my home State of
New York. The President's budget would cut millions of dollars from the
Department of Justice programs that hire police officers, provide their
equipment, and combat the opioid epidemic. The budget would cut
millions from New York's educational programs that would help schools
throughout our State, including those schools on military bases. It
would hurt afterschool programs and STEM initiatives teaching our young
people about science and math. The cuts to NIH would devastate New
York's hospitals, particularly rural hospitals, and would cut back on
our great medical research. We are all living longer and healthier, in
part, because of the medical research done by NIH. Hardly anyone wants
to cut that. The President did.
The cuts to Medicaid would affect 6.5 million New Yorkers who rely on
it. I think that story can be repeated for just about every State. New
York is a very diverse State, with large urban, rural, and suburban
populations, and every one of them is hurt across the board from safety
and security to education and healthcare, to infrastructure and
economic development. The Trump budget would be a gut punch to New
York's middle class. The same is true for the Nation.
[[Page S1771]]
Setting aside, for the moment, the humanity of these cuts, this
budget reveals the depth of President Trump's hypocrisy on several of
his signature issues. Donald Trump campaigned for President promising
not to cut Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security. In 2015, he tweeted:
I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state
there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare &
Medicaid. Huckabee copied me.
Let's look at President Trump's budget. It cuts Medicare by $845
billion, cuts Medicaid by $1.5 trillion. I understand the challenges of
the office sometimes prevent Presidents from achieving precisely what
they campaigned on, but this is literally the opposite of what Donald
Trump said in his campaign. No one is forcing his hand. He is proposing
this.
Candidate Trump? No cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. President Trump?
Cut those promises by more than $2 trillion.
This budget says: ``Promises kept.'' Balderdash--balderdash--when it
comes to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Promises kept? Donald
Trump said he wouldn't cut Medicare or Medicaid. The budget slashes
them brutally. How can they dare say ``promises kept'' on probably the
most significant domestic-side programs we have when they slash them?
You don't even need a long memory to find out the hypocrisy of the
President in this budget. Only a few months ago, the President spoke to
the American Farm Bureau, promising a bright future for American
farmers. Yet his administration proposed cutting the Department of
Agriculture in the midst of implementing a new farm bill by 15 percent.
In his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Trump
called education the ``civil rights of our time.'' Yesterday, he
proposed cutting the Department of Education by 12 percent. Promises
kept? Balderdash.
One of the few bipartisan moments during the President's most recent
State of the Union was when he pledged to ``defeat AIDS in America and
beyond.'' The President's budget, however, cuts the program that seeks
to eliminate AIDS around the globe by 22 percent. Promises kept?
Balderdash.
Of course, the President famously promised Mexico would pay for the
border wall. His budget asks the American taxpayers to shell out $8.6
billion for the wall. Promises kept? Balderdash.
On the cover of the President's budget are emblazoned the words
``Promises Kept.'' He must really believe no one will read beyond the
cover page because this budget document is a list of broken promises by
President Trump, one after the other. What he says to the public and
what he puts out in his budget are in two different worlds. Promises
kept? He said he wouldn't cut Medicare or Medicaid. He cuts them.
Promises kept? He said he would bolster our farmers. He cuts the farm
bill 15 percent. Promises kept? Mexico will pay for the wall--not in
this budget. The American taxpayers pay for it.
It is just pathetic that in this world in which we live, a President
can be so hypocritical and contradictory by saying one thing and then
having his budget do the exact opposite.
I have a challenge to my friend Leader McConnell, another challenge,
because he seems to duck about every issue we have. Put President
Trump's budget on the floor of the Senate. You are putting the Green
New Deal on the floor of the Senate. Put this budget on the floor of
the Senate. Let's see if a single Republican votes for it.