Steny Hoyer: “Mr. Speaker, our Republican colleagues, in my opinion, should review the work of Sir Isaac Newton. It was Newton, after…”

“Mr. Speaker, our Republican colleagues, in my opinion, should review the work of Sir Isaac Newton. It was Newton, after all, who wrote 4 centuries ago: to every action, there is always opposed an equal reaction. Today we are seeing that principle play out right before our eyes. Earlier this year, the majority party enacted its third tax cut in 3 years, the most recent one giving America's millionaires an average tax cut of $93,500. And what do we suppose is the reaction to that action? Underfunding the No Child Left Behind Act by $8 billion? Yes. Cutting heating assistance for our Nation's poor? Certainly. And the smallest percentage increase in funding for the National Institutes of Health in 18 years? Indeed, Mr. Speaker, it is true. The 2.5 percent increase for NIH in the House-passed version of the Labor-HHS-Education appropriation bill, which is the same increase proposed by the Bush administration, pales in comparison to the 15 percent annual increases NIH has received in recent years under our bipartisan program to double the medical research budget.”