Statement from the House Floor

By Rep. Cynthia McKinney

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to talk about who wins and who loses in the Bush Republican budget. 300,000 working poor who have children would be cut from the food stamp program. I received a call today from a constituent from Lithonia, Georgia complaining her children depend on the food stamps she gets to stretch the family food budget. LIHEA is the low income heating assistance program that makes sure our low-income families don't freeze during the winter and the republicans propose to cut that program, even as heating costs rise.

Now the republicans want us to believe they care about our children, the proof is where they put taxpayers' money. The Pentagon can't account for $2.3 trillion dollars, Halliburton walks away with over $100 million undeserved dollars, Secretary Rumsfeld says the U.S. can afford record defense expenditures, while the president proposes to cut all vocational education at the high school level, the safe and drug free schools program, the upward bound program and even dropout prevention. What could be more important to the education president than to make sure our young people graduate from high school with an education that has prepared them for life? Well, I know the answer to that question. Not the mom and pop businesses on main street and their families, but the wealthy scions of industry on Wall Street. Even Chairman of the federal reserve system alan greenspan lamented before our committee the growing wealth and education disparities in our country.

The republicans will talk about growth, but they won't talk about how our country is growing apart. They tell us home ownership is on the rise, but 3/4 of white families in this country own their homes while the majority of Asian Americans, Native Americans, Latinos and African-Americans remain renters.  According to just about every reputable study, the disparity between black quality of life and white quality of life is not narrowing nearly as fast as we would like it to. In the last six years, wealth for white families grew by 37% while wealth for families of color fell by 7%.  These numbers represent real people who have not felt one bit of republican growth.

Too many Americans, especially African Americans and Latinos, can't afford health care, housing and even a college education. We have two choices, we can grow together or we can grow apart. When we invested in our people, like Social Security, the G.I. bill, civil rights laws, affirmative action, America grew and we all grew together. But now because of the policies coming of Washington, DC, today's wealthiest 10% own 70% of America's wealth. It is clear that Americans are growing apart.

The Republican budget ought to provide opportunity for all to experience America's coming prosperity, but it is also clear it does not. Thank you Mr. Chairman.