Elijah Cummings: “I began this evening dedicating this hour to a young man from Baltimore, and I talked about how we wanted to make sure…”

“I began this evening dedicating this hour to a young man from Baltimore, and I talked about how we wanted to make sure that we kept America strong for him although he has gone on, SGT Kendall Damon Waters-Bey. And the things that we have talked about tonight, Mr. Speaker, is about balance, balancing addressing our needs, for protecting ourselves from the outside, and for protecting ourselves from some home-grown enemies, and at the same time balancing our needs to take care of the American people. It is so important to us in the Congressional Black Caucus that we focus in on this budget which, while it addresses a year or two now, it addresses expenditures for now, we realize that those expenditures that are made today or those cuts that are made today will affect people for a lifetime. A child only has 1 year to be in the first grade or to be in pre-K. If that child is denied Head Start, that might affect that child until she or he dies. When it comes to prescription drugs and things of that nature, when our seniors simply want medicine and they cannot get it, it can affect them today and can cut their lives short immediately. So we have come today to focus in on this budget. It is a budget that we have concluded is very unfair to the American people.”