Bill Pascrell: “I thank the ranking member. I rise in strong opposition to this budget. There is football and then there is fantasy…”

“I thank the ranking member. I rise in strong opposition to this budget. There is football and then there is fantasy football. Mr. Ranking Member, you were being very charitable when you used the word ``scam.'' This is a real lemon by any stretch--and you don't have to use your imagination. This is a formula for another 2007-2008. This will be a duplication. And the pain caused by that decade, that 8 years of the 21st century, the budgets from 2001-2008 when we cut taxes in 2001 and we cut taxes in 2003, and then 2007 and 2008 the world fell apart. Why? An enormous loss of jobs every month. Look at the numbers. You want to hold up charts, hold them up. This agreement uses gimmicks to balance the budget and does so on the backs of the poor and the middle class and senior citizens. It imposes its cuts on programs that assist low- and modest-income Americans even though they constitute--those programs--less than one-fourth of the Federal spending. The Republican plan would cause tens of millions of people to become uninsured or underinsured. I know how you are careful to even talk about that. In other words, if we are going to repeal the Affordable Care Act, make sure you put in a sentence about what we need to do about those people who have preconditions. Phony, phony, phony. You said it; we didn't. Slashing funding for education, for research, for infrastructure. Wait until the bridges fall down and more people fall into the water.…”