Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2016

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. ELLISON. Madam Chair, as the designee of the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Grijalva), I have an amendment at the desk, and I rise to offer an alternative budget on behalf of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. ELLISON. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would like to stand while using this visual aid so that I can show clearly that the people's budget--the people's budget which we will enter today and will have debate on right now--is the right budget for the American people because it puts the American people first.

The people's budget has it firmly in mind, ``We, the people''; and so when we think about how we should pull together a plan for the Nation's spending and the Nation's receipts, revenue, and how we plan out what we are going to spend money on, this people's budget is the thing.

Let me start just by talking about where we are now and how we must respond to the American people's needs.

Corporations are pocketing record profits by driving down wages with one hand and increasing the cost of building basic building blocks of a happy life on the other. Where does that leave working families? Huddled around a dinner table with their paychecks, doing the math in their head, wondering if they can make ends meet this month.

This shows, clearly, median income for all families down 8 percent between 2000 and 2012; price of rent is up; medical care is up; child care is up; higher education is way up.

The people's budget responds directly to the needs of the American people, first, by putting forth the most important thing and what we believe is the most important metric and measurement of any budget: How many jobs do you create? The people's budget creates 8.4 million jobs and raises wages by: investing $820 billion in infrastructure and rebuilding our Nation's roads and bridges and our broadband and things like that; providing aid to States to help local governments rehire teachers, firefighters, police officers; supporting a minimum wage increase and increasing funding for worker protection agencies to enforce wage laws; and, finally, funding student loan programs that help businesses grow.

The people's budget brings down the cost for the building blocks of the American Dream. At a time when too many young people are getting priced out of a college education situation, our budget offers debt-free college for all; and for students who are already paying back their student loans, we offer affordable loan refinancing.

To reduce health care costs, the people's budget removes the 40 percent excise tax on high-cost health care plans and provides for a public option for consumers. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that a public option would offer premiums that are 7 to 8 percent lower than those offered by private plans.

To help parents take care of their children, our budget expands family tax credits and develops a fund to provide eligible low-income families with access to health care.

At the bottom line, Madam Chair, is this: the richest nation in the history of the world at what may well be argued its richest point in its history should be a place where working people can look forward to an American Dream, where they don't have to huddle around the table at the end of the week and wonder if they are going to make it. So we offer the people's budget.

Madam Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Grijalva), my cochair.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Chairman, thank you for allowing us the time to talk about the people's budget. This is the budget that puts 8.4 million people back to work.

Early in this debate, my colleague on the other side of the aisle, Mr. Price, pulled up a chart, and he did a comparison between our budget and the Republican budget, but there was one category that I did not see on that chart, and that is: How many jobs do you create? How many jobs do you create?

This is the right number that we should be comparing budgets on, and I would say, for Americans all over this country looking for work, wanting to make a valuable contribution to themselves and their family, this is the right budget because this is the jobs budget, this is the good work budget, and this is the people's budget.

I would also like to give a big thanks to over 150,000 people who signed a petition in favor of the people's budget. Citizen activists know what is good for their government. They want the people's budget. The Economic Policy Institute, trained economists who have strict numbers and modeling, have come up to help us out, so the people's budget.

We urge a ``yes'' vote.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source