Providing for Consideration of the Senate Amendment to H.R. 1314, Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations the Right to Appeal Act, And Providing for Consideration of the Senate Amendments to H.R. 644, Fighting Hunger Incentive Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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Mr. ELLISON. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me the time.
Mr. Speaker, there really is quite a lot on the line here, despite what some speakers would submit, which is, oh, you know, this is just the TPA; it is not a big thing. No, this is a huge thing.
As a matter of fact, this particular rule we are voting on right now does three important things. One is
that it has the pay-for for the trade adjustment assistance that includes cuts to Medicare. No matter how you slice it, if you vote for this rule, you are voting to cut Medicare. Then what it does, it sets up a vote for the trade adjustment assistance and trade promotion authority.
The fact is, if you go home and you try to explain to Americans, ``Oh, I didn't vote to cut Medicare,'' the fact is you will not be able to honestly say that. You might be able to say, ``Well, I did, but then they fixed it.'' You might be able to say, ``Well, yeah, I cut Medicare, but then later on we passed a thing and maybe Mitch McConnell won't try to change it later.'' You can say anything you want, but the maneuverings on this floor and in this body to get us to where we are have not changed one solid fact, which is that we are voting to cut Medicare.
Now, there are all kinds of cute procedural maneuverings and different kinds of rules we are invoking, but you cannot escape the essential fact: the cut to Medicare is not going to be cut and excised out of this. If you vote for the rule, you voted to cut Medicare. Our seniors have taken enough on the chin. Do not put their livelihood at risk.
Now, let me also say that this TAA is not supported by the AFL-CIO. Trade adjustment assistance is to help workers who are displaced by bad trade deals. Wouldn't you think that the president of the AFL-CIO would say, ``Yeah, well, we definitely would want TAA''? And he usually almost always does, but not this time because he knows what all of us should know, which is this trade adjustment authority is cutting Medicare.
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Mr. ELLISON. This trade adjustment authority is paid for by Medicare. It continues to be underfunded. Trade adjustment authority is underfunded. It is like if you kick somebody off their job because of a bad trade deal and then you tell them, ``We are going to help you adjust to it.'' Well, you know what? At least we should fund it properly. Given the billions of dollars that will be made by this trade deal by multinational corporations, doesn't it make sense that we should at least try to fully fund trade adjustment authority, trade adjustment assistance? But we don't.
Then the fact is that it excludes public sector workers. Public sector workers are negatively impacted by bad trade deals, just like all other workers. Why wouldn't we include them in it? They are not included in it.
So this TAA, this trade adjustment assistance, package is insufficient. We must vote it down. I urge a ``no'' vote. I just want to let Members know, when you walk into that senior center and Mrs. McGillicuddy asks you, ``Did you vote to cut Medicare?'' I hope you can answer truthfully you did not vote to cut Medicare. Vote ``no'' on this rule.
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Mr. ELLISON. This trade adjustment authority is paid for by Medicare. It continues to be underfunded. Trade adjustment authority is underfunded. It is like if you kick somebody off their job because of a bad trade deal and then you tell them, ``We are going to help you adjust to it.'' Well, you know what? At least we should fund it properly. Given the billions of dollars that will be made by this trade deal by multinational corporations, doesn't it make sense that we should at least try to fully fund trade adjustment authority, trade adjustment assistance? But we don't.
Then the fact is that it excludes public sector workers. Public sector workers are negatively impacted by bad trade deals, just like all other workers. Why wouldn't we include them in it? They are not included in it.
So this TAA, this trade adjustment assistance, package is insufficient. We must vote it down. I urge a ``no'' vote. I just want to let Members know, when you walk into that senior center and Mrs. McGillicuddy asks you, ``Did you vote to cut Medicare?'' I hope you can answer truthfully you did not vote to cut Medicare. Vote ``no'' on this rule.
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