Steve Cohen: “The Ryan budget. In the words of the great Republican President, whom the Republicans like to remember: There they go…”

“The Ryan budget. In the words of the great Republican President, whom the Republicans like to remember: There they go again. It's the same budget. It's catering to the wealthy, and it's cutting the middle class. It's reducing the top tax rate to 25 percent, which will give the wealthiest $200,000 a piece in tax breaks, and it continues the sequestration--a stupid, meat-ax approach to our budget that cuts $1.6 billion from the National Institutes of Health. Does anybody out there, Mr. Speaker, have cancer? heart disease? Is anybody thinking about some relative who might have Alzheimer's? AIDS? post-polio? diabetes? Cures and treatments come from the National Institutes of Health, and you're not going to get them if they cut $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion out of it. The cures and treatment will benefit the next generation more than this generation, and that's what we should be doing is investing there. This foolish, meat-ax approach is to be continued with the Ryan budget, and it will cost us lives and stop us from being a leader in research and innovation. We need to have a smart budget and invest in the National Institutes of Health and preserve our human infrastructure. ____________________”