John Spratt: “Mr. Chairman, I am not here to speak about the CATS' meow. Mr. Chairman, here we go again. To placate the extremists…”

“Mr. Chairman, I am not here to speak about the CATS' meow. Mr. Chairman, here we go again. To placate the extremists, the Republican leadership has brought to the floor a budget which is so extreme that the Republican Senate Committee on the Budget chairman has called it a mockery. Republican Governors say that this Republican budget violates the agreements that were made with the States. The chairman of the Committee on Appropriations in the Senate says that Congress cannot function with this Republican budget. Mr. Chairman, budgets are not just about numbers, budgets are about values. Budgets are about priorities, and they are about who we are as a Nation. Let us take a look at the Republican values, as illustrated in the Kasich budget, the Republican budget. The budget fails to preserve Social Security. It would cut health services to seniors, to pregnant women and children who cannot afford health insurance. It would cut an additional $10 billion out of veterans' health care services, and it shortchanges our future by killing investments in child care and in education. I ask the Members, are these the kinds of values that we are about in the United States of America? This budget eliminates the investment in improving the quality of early childhood education, to help children start school ready to learn.”