Richard Gephardt: “I rise today to denounce this mindless and mean-spirited package of budget cuts and to urge every one of my colleagues…”

“I rise today to denounce this mindless and mean-spirited package of budget cuts and to urge every one of my colleagues to cast their vote against it. This appropriations bill is more than a handful of budget reductions to balance the Nation's budget, it is more than a few policy changes about which we could rationally and reasonably disagree, Mr. Chairman, this appropriations bill is a dagger pointed at the heart of working Americans. It is a dangerous repeal of basic standards and protections that have been in place in this country for nearly a century. If we pass it, America in the 1990's will look more and more like America in the 1890's. Mr. Chairman, like the days of the Robber Barons, we will have a Republican America where hard-working people are overworked, underpaid, and underprotected. We will have a Republican America where corporate titans wreak trickle-down tax cuts while we slash education, slash job training, slash summer jobs, and any chance of protecting average workers from abuse and exploitation. Is that really what we should be doing? Is that really what America voted for last November; a Congress that doles out tax breaks for the few and partisan punishment for the many? Mr. Chairman, the sole central purpose of this Government is to fight for working families and the middle class, to work as partners with the private sector, to lift up wages and incomes and our standard of living. That used to be a bipartisan commitment in this House.”