Mike Levin: “what irony. This is the Deficit Reduction Act. We just heard; what was the deficit in November? $83 billion. You have…”

“what irony. This is the Deficit Reduction Act. We just heard; what was the deficit in November? $83 billion. You have the gall to come here and talk about deficit reduction? $83 billion in one month. Your priorities are clear. You do not bring up the tax bill tonight because you are afraid to combine a bill that cuts $20 billion, over half of which goes to people making 1 million bucks a year, with these budget cuts. Mr. Speaker, we scared you off, some of your intentions on child support, which would have resulted in $24 billion less over the next 10 years collected for the kids of America. You have now reduced it to $8.4 billion. That is how much less children are going to receive. And the irony is that the States that are hurt the most are the States that are best performing. And then when it comes to welfare reform, in the 1990s, many of us worked together to change our laws. We did it in a way that provided adequate child care and Medicaid. President Clinton would not sign the bill until those provisions were in there. You could not get an immediate welfare reform package through the Senate, so what you have done is to stick it in this bill. That is what you are doing. {time} 0300 The child care provision, only about $1 billion. It would take $11 billion for the States, if the States met the work requirements, $11 billion more in child care, and you do not help at all in terms of health care.…”