On the recordFebruary 15, 2011
The Economic Policy Institute says that the GOP plan will cost our country 800,000 jobs. The parts of the CR that relate to Commerce, Justice and Science relate to essentially four areas. International trade assistance exports. The President has a major initiative to create American jobs through exporting. They want to cut it by $93 million. They want to cut $1.3 billion out of law enforcement. So if you need a cop and you call 911, there may or may not be one available because if it's one of the 1,300 that will be cut under this bill, they'll be gone. In legal services, some 80,000 cases reduced--for seniors who will be fighting mortgage foreclosure that would be fraudulent in their case, or domestic abuse violence in their homes, through cuts to legal services. And a $150 million cut for the National Science Foundation. Now my colleagues have a tough job. They're in the majority. They've got to make rational decisions. Let me just say this. If spending was bad, we would eliminate all spending. Some spending is necessary. We should be cutting waste. We should not be cutting law enforcement and legal assistance and scientific analysis, and we shouldn't be cutting export opportunities for American workers. And we shouldn't be risking 800,000 jobs in our country; not today, not on any day.
