Richard Gephardt: “I rise today to make one simple fundamental point. We can do better than a budget that takes health care from the…”

“I rise today to make one simple fundamental point. We can do better than a budget that takes health care from the elderly to pay for tax breaks for the privileged few. I say to my colleagues, ``If you ask me, this budget is not just reckless public policy. It's a repudiation of everything this country stands for and every purpose that we came here to serve.'' Mr. Speaker, tax cuts for the privileged few and budget cuts for the middle class is the most egregious redistribution of income from workers to the wealthy since Republicans ruled the White House, and I suppose this should not come as a surprise because that is what trickle-down economics is really all about, survival of the richest and feeding everybody else to the economic wolves. The last time the Republicans tried it in the high rolling 1980's, two-thirds of all the new wealth went to the top 1 percent of Americans. The most privileged of the privileged, the decent, hard-working, middle-income families who are the strength and soul of this country, barely got a dime. And now the Republicans are saying that after a decade and a half of economic disaster and decline for the middle income people it is time to try it all over again. It is time to ravage health care for the elderly and disabled, rob people's pensions, and pass a back-door tax increase.”