David Cicilline

I thank the gentleman. In addition to that, the other part of the Republican budget that passed in this Chamber was also to restore the doughnut hole; to make prescription drugs more expensive for our seniors and to eliminate the free…

If the gentleman will yield, I think what is just shocking is that that claim was made today, and really what is un- American is to end Medicare. The reality is Medicare reflects our values as a country. We decided as a Nation that we…

I thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening about jobs and particularly about the Make It in America Agenda, but before I begin, I would like to yield to the gentleman from Michigan to begin this conversation.

H.R. 1, the Budget Resolution for the next fiscal year, would reduce funding for this budget by a whopping 41 percent.

We must preserve our funding for international relief programs, specifically, programs supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The Head Start program has enabled hundreds of thousands of children to learn how to read, write, do arithmetic and be successful in elementary school.

The Pell Grant, which has only been increased in funding in the last year after not being increased for more than five years, enables hundreds of thousands of low-income students to realize the more elusive dream of attending college.

I am proud of the history and success of this program, and there are many more similar organizations doing the same thing with little if any headlines in our nation.

We must also make sure that our communities are safe by restoring funding for COPS hiring and COPS programs.

We must increase funding for job training by increasing funding for the Workforce Investment Act to $4.5 billion.

Instead of jeopardizing the retirement security of millions of Americans through privatization, we must ensure that the wealthiest among us pay their fair share by raising the cap on the social security payroll tax.

The best approach to broadening the risk pool and bringing down costs is to extend Medicare for all individuals and establish a single payer system.

It's clear that we must end the war in Afghanistan and instead make smart security investments to safeguard our nation's interests and improve our long term security.

With rising costs for gas, food, and rent--proposing drastic cuts to education, housing, and healthcare will place additional burdens on the most vulnerable among us--jeopardizing the lives of millions of Americans.

If you support the repeal of health reform--you are contributing to the destabilization of Medicare.

We cannot and we must not balance the budget on the backs of our most vulnerable; we must instead build up the budget and reduce the deficit through the success of the working class.

In the forum I proposed an analogous statement 'I plan to start my diet by eating cake and ice cream' to illustrate the hypocrisy.

Extending all of the Bush-era tax cuts, especially those for the wealthiest Americans, for two years is not the best way to begin addressing the deficit.

We must ensure that every American has a roof over their head by funding $2 billion in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

The most imminent crisis we face is the crisis we have the opportunity to address right now in our 2012 budget, and that is America's economic crisis.

It would be disingenuous for me to promote my legislation using the deceitful claim Social Security is broken or faces an imminent crisis.

No matter how many times you say Social Security is broke, the reality is that Social Security's independent revenue stream and its Trust Fund's investments maintain the program's solvency until 2037.

Raising the retirement age would mean an immediate benefit cut for men and women of America.

The motion imminent crisis we face is one that we can address right now in our 2012 budget.

We have a quarter century to shore up Social Security.