Joe Cunningham: “I did not know if I was going to vote for this budget, but after the partisan rancor that I just heard on this floor, I…”

“I did not know if I was going to vote for this budget, but after the partisan rancor that I just heard on this floor, I am going to vote for it. It is despicable. Talk about hurting veterans, talk about cutting Social Security. In 1993 when they had the White House, the House, and the Senate, what did they do? They spoke and talked about tax breaks for the middle class, tax breaks for the middle class. What did they do? They had the highest tax in the history of this Nation. They cut the COLAs of veterans. They cut the COLAs of our active duty military. Where you said you were going to decrease the tax for the middle class, you increased the tax for the middle class. You took and utilized every dime out of the Social Security Trust Fund, and you had the gall, you have the gall to stand up here and accuse us of only for the rich. Not a single Clinton budget after you controlled the White House, the House and the Senate ever passed this body or the other body. We brought up those budgets so that the Democrats would have to vote on them. They were so bad, and you know how many Democrats voted for it? Three. That is a fact because I will tell the gentleman, I thought we were going to have a debate, not a finger-pointing thing here tonight, and I had not planned even on speaking until I heard the speakers speak before me, and I had questions about our budget, but not after the rancor that I have heard on this floor. You did in 1993 raise taxes.”