Rubén Hinojosa: “this week we in the U.S. Congress will debate the budget resolution for fiscal year 2003. Last year, after almost a…”

“this week we in the U.S. Congress will debate the budget resolution for fiscal year 2003. Last year, after almost a decade of work, we finally had a budget surplus. This year, we will again plunge into deficit spending and raid the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. No Member of Congress is opposed to paying the necessary cost of defending our country, securing our homeland, and supporting our military personnel. However, this defense did not have to come at the expense of other important domestic programs. We are in this fix because the trillion dollar tax cut over 10 years, enacted last year, left us no room to deal with the emergency we are now facing. I want the people of the 15th District of Texas to know what the 2003 budget will mean to them. It means that people in my district will not get vital assistance to combat our decade-long water drought because the President has eliminated the Drought Assistance Program from the 2003 budget. It means the 'One Stop Capital Shop' that helps small minority businesses stay in business in the poorest county in the Nation will have to close. It means there will be even less funding to combat the epidemic of tuberculosis, hepatitis, and HIV/AIDS that is rampant on the southern border and, if not checked, will spread throughout the country.”