Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico’s Third District spoke on the House floor today on the Fiscal Year 2012 budget resolution House Republicans introduced this morning.  Below are his remarks as prepared.

“Mr. Speaker, our nation faces serious economic challenges that require solutions that will create jobs and strengthen our economy.  At a time when our top priority should be creating jobs for the American people, our Republican colleagues have lost focus on working families.

“The House budget that Republicans introduced this morning fails to put our country on a path to prosperity.  Budgets are about priorities and values, and the Republican budget makes the wrong choices for hard-working families.

“Let’s talk about the Republican Dictionary.  Premium support system – when they talk about premium support systems they mean vouchers and privatization.  Pro-growth changes to the tax code – when they talk about pro-growth changes, in fact when they talk about anything that is going to change the tax code, they mean more tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires.

“The Republican plan ends Medicare and Medicaid as we know it by privatizing Medicare.  Millions of seniors who rely on this program will be left out in the cold.

“While it is critical that we tighten our belts, we have choices to make.  Let’s choose not to do it on the backs of our seniors.”

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