Alcee Hastings: “I would respond to the chairman simply by saying that you ignore the fact that the deficits are sky high in this surge…”

“I would respond to the chairman simply by saying that you ignore the fact that the deficits are sky high in this surge of revenue of which you speak, and the needs, I might add, of those that are most vulnerable in our society have not been reduced. The poor and the near poor are feeling the effects of us, and what we are really doing is we are taking care of the wealthiest people in our society. As a matter of fact, we fall in that category. Those of us that make $165,000 a year here, we are getting the benefit, and the people at the bottom that we are going to cut the services to are getting hurt.”