Steve Cohen: “Thank you, and I appreciate the time and the opportunity to speak on this measure. I'm concerned about the fiscal cliff.…”

“Thank you, and I appreciate the time and the opportunity to speak on this measure. I'm concerned about the fiscal cliff. And it's important. President Obama has tried to work with the opposition party and has gone from what he was elected on--increasing taxes, for fairness, on families earning over $250,000--to $400,000. But no, that wasn't enough. This proposal goes to a million dollars a year. Now $400,000 is plenty comfortable. The President's gone a long way. The fact is that there's a lot of revenue that's being lost between $400,000 and $1 million. We need that revenue to rectify some problems in our society, of which there are still many. This bill would cut funding for the National Institutes of Health. That is our physical cliff. And I want to talk to you how this fiscal cliff affects the physical cliff. The National Institutes of Health is the agency that comes up with research dollars that allows our lives to be extend and bettered. At Duke University there is a great lung transplant program, headed by Dr. Robert Davis. Duke needs more money to perfect their lung transplant program that's the best in the country. But still, it's only a 50 percent chance that a person will live 8 years with a lung transplant because the transplanted lung tends to be rejected. They don't know why. They need know find out it. It's National Institutes of Health funds that will find out and give people a chance to breathe and live.…”