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STATEMENT OF SENATOR TOM HARKIN ON SENATE APPROVAL OF REPUBLICAN BUDGET CUTS

12/22/2005

“It’s no accident this final bill was passed out of the House in the dead of night. Quite simply, this budget attacks America’s working families, children, the elderly, and the least fortunate so the Republicans can pass yet more tax giveaways for the wealthy. Congressional Republicans have touted these cuts as necessary to address this country’s runaway deficit, but with their new round of tax cuts on the way, their plan will make the deficit even worse. Republicans cut Medicare, Medicaid, child support and initiatives helping family farmers and give those savings, and then-some, to the nation’s wealthiest. It’s still possible for the House to reject this legislation because some of it violated Senate rules and I urge them to do so.

“This budget is only the latest slap at farm families and rural communities thanks to the Bush administration and this Republican Congress. The president’s trade negotiators just returned from Hong Kong, where they were offering large reductions in U.S. farm commodity programs. Secretary Johanns and the Bush administration have said we should expand trade, cut those commodity programs and put more emphasis on conservation, renewable energy, rural economic development and agricultural research. Yet it is exactly these forward-looking initiatives, which we funded in the 2002 farm bill, that suffer the biggest, most disproportionate cuts in the Republican budget. This is a classic bait and switch – with rural America the loser.”