(8/16/97 Baltimore AFRO-American Newspaper)
by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
Last week the President signed a tax and spending agreement into law at a White House rose garden ceremony filled with fanfare and pageantry. Congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle hailed the bipartisan agreement and the spirit of compromise which made the event a reality. What a difference a few days can make!
This week President Clinton has unleashed the wrath of Republicans by securing his place in legislative history as the first President to use the line item veto. He claimed that three particular amendments in the budget plan were wasteful and catered to special interests. The Republicans countered that the President violated the "spirit" of the hard-fought agreement by using his new veto powers and vowed to challenge the validity of the line-item veto in court. Oddly enough, the passage of the line-item veto was one of the major provisions of the Republican "Contract with America."
I believe that the President and the Congress failed to: craft a document which is fair to all Americans, invests in the future, or actually balances the budget.
Though I had significant reservations, I did vote in favor of the spending portion of the agreement. The legislation made minimal efforts to maintain the solvency of Medicare, increased funds for Pell Grants, gave five million poor children health insurance, and put an additional 100,000 cops on the streets. However, the legislation was far from perfect.
Even with my vote in favor of the spending bill, I could not bring myself to support the lopsided tax proposals which once again pitted middle and lower-income taxpayers against the wealthy. There were several reasons to oppose this legislation. More than 60 percent of the tax breaks and cuts in the agreement go to wealthiest one percent of American taxpayers -- not the hardworking families in my district. The median household income in the 7th Congressional District is less than $26,000. Under the tax agreement these families would receive an average savings of $170. With any of the major Republican proposals approved by the President and the Congress, a minimum tax cut of $16,784 per person will go to taxpayers with an average income of $645,000 a year! Where is the equity the President is touting? Where is the fairness Speaker Gingrich says is a part of this bill? Where is the vision for a more humane and just America?
Disparity of income and wealth is already at an all time high and this agreement only makes it worse. These tax provisions for the wealthy are the real agenda of the Republicans and they should not use the ruse of balancing the budget to cover their real intent. Indeed, Budget Chairman Bill Archer came to the floor of the house during the debate on this agreement and said, "This is only the beginning."
Recently I met a woman in my District who told me that she was living on Social Security and depended on Medicare to protect her health. Her apartment did not have heat or hot water because she couldn’t afford it. This woman had worked her entire life and played by the rules. Millions of Americans are just like her and they all deserve dignity and respect.
Second, the agreement fails to adequately invest in our future. According to the Economic Policy Institute, "the share of national income reinvested in education, training, infrastructure, and civilian research and development will continue to decline under this budget." It is apparent that the Republicans are willing to sacrifice vital services to children, seniors, and the poor in the name of deficit reduction.
Let me give two examples. In reference to children’s health, the President correctly insisted on $16 billion for covering poor children who lack health insurance coverage. However, he supported an equal cut in Medicaid which negatively affects children’s hospitals. This compromise gives to children with one hand and takes away with the other.
Throughout Baltimore and around the nation there is a need to build and rebuild our schools to create a positive learning environment for our children. Our school buildings are crumbling. President Clinton said during his State-of-the-Union message earlier this year that investing in our schools was a down payment on the future. The budget agreement rejects funding for improving school infrastructure.
Finally, this is an agreement that will not balance the budget. It is an agreement based on dubious financial and economic assumptions. To tell the country that the deficit will go down when in fact the deficit will rise in the next two years and then explode after 2002 is wrong. I refuse to be party to an agreement that balances the budget in name only.
Simply put, this budget is not fair. The vision of a nation where all citizens participate equally in sustaining the economic health has been lost in political posturing and half-truths. This budget agreement will result in short-term gains for a few, but long-term pain for many. This is a price we should not be willing to pay.
-The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives.