Bob Menendez: “I believe we are at a crossroads in our Nation's history. In front of us is every opportunity for a future so bright, so…”

“I believe we are at a crossroads in our Nation's history. In front of us is every opportunity for a future so bright, so filled with promise that our children and grandchildren have a chance to live in a Nation where every person truly has the opportunity to reach their fullest potential, a Nation where every child is educated in a modern school, in smaller classes with an excellent teacher; a Nation where people who have worked a lifetime can retire with security and without worries; a safe Nation with guns off of our streets and away from our schools. We can achieve these things if we make the right choices today. Mr. Chairman, I say to my colleagues, this Republican budget makes all the wrong choices. Its main goal is a $1 trillion tax cut that snuffs out the aspirations of all but the wealthiest among us. It cuts 310,000 low-income babies and mothers off the nutritional assistance they use to buy things like milk and baby food. It takes away home heating assistance from 164,000 poor families. It cuts financial aid from hundreds of thousands of students. It ends Head Start for 40,000 preschoolers. It does not extend Social Security and Medicare, not even for a single day. That is no way to lift people up, to give them a chance to make a brighter future. Great nations recognize that families in trouble are families with untapped potential, not problems to be swept under the rug.”