Tom Harkin

We cannot afford to eliminate the tax credits that are helping to make health insurance more affordable for small businesses.

They are going to hit Americans right where they live.

But they rely upon good people like all of you here to give them hope and to give them opportunity and to make sure that the other Jonathan Kenistons out there and the other ones that you mentioned, Dr. Allen... we have just got to make…

I will strenuously oppose attempts to balance the budget on the backs of our most vulnerable and powerless people in our society.

Here in Cedar Falls and across America, there is serious concern about our record-high deficits.

Any successful attempt to nullify health reform would be a major blow to our State.

WIA efforts clearly have positive results, but Federal funding levels are too low to meet the need.

Senator Harkin, your leadership in securing the funding necessary to make that happen is greatly appreciated.

We must not let these programs erode.

We need to maintain investments that are critical to the future of our American family, even as we reduce spending overall.

I will also insist on adequate funding for critical initiatives that help Iowans and all Americans to get a good education.

We anticipate that will probably happen.

The allocation your office helped us with to continue this work did not pass the house in the omnibus bill

We must also continue to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid.

We know that in the years immediately ahead, we must take aggressive and painful and unpopular steps to bring this deficit under control.

I have been very encouraged by what Secretary Vilsack has been doing with our guidelines.

The President has proposed cutting CSBG funding by 50 percent. This will dramatically impact our most vulnerable families.

I hope it doesn't come to that.

That is why this is just so vitally important on these Pell grants to make sure that we continue those.

The Constitution of the United States gives the power of the purse to Congress, not to the President.

I intend to push for a wide range of additional spending cuts, including eliminating expensive Cold War-era weapons systems.

Certainly, we took an important first step by passing, I think, the new health reform law, which will reduce the deficit.

Thank you, Senator Harkin, helped us to secure.

We know that, in the years immediately ahead, we must take aggressive, painful, and unpopular steps to bring the deficit under control--both by cutting unnecessary spending and by ending unaffordable tax breaks for the wealthy.

For a program like Head Start, that would mean cutting services to 120,000 kids across the country.