On the recordApril 14, 2011
I thank the gentleman. Mr. Chairman, we know that budgets are about values. As the chairman of the Budget Committee has mentioned, they are about choices. And we know that this reckless Republican budget makes a very disastrous choice. It chooses to sacrifice the safety net of millions and millions of Americans in favor of millionaires and billionaires. Every time we mention that, the other side says, class warfare. Oh, the Democrats are engaged in class warfare. Guess what, Mr. Chairman? That war is over. The wealthy class has won. The wealthy class has already declared victory. That's why the 1 percent of income earners, the top 1 percent, now has as much wealth in this country as the bottom 90 percent. So when we are talking about what we can do to try and get our fiscal house in order, the idea that we would ask that 1 percent that has accumulated enormous wealth, the greatest disparity of wealth in the history of this country, to pay a little bit more, the Republicans say ``no,'' that's class warfare. Instead, they would rather cut security for seniors, for our students, for our struggling families, because millionaires and billionaires, left to their own devices, will make everybody's boat rise. We have been down that road before, Mr. Chairman. We have seen what has resulted when that choice was made.…





