Today from the House floor, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL) spoke against the proposed Republican budget that is estimated to reduce jobs by 2 million over the next year. Below is a video of her remarks and a transcript of her remarks.

Mr. Speaker, Democrats and Republicans agree that deficit reduction is important. In fact, over the past year and a half, we have achieved over $2.7 trillion in debt reduction.

But now, the Republicans want to take us through a charade with this Tea Party budget. If enacted, the Republican budget would weaken America’s recovery.

It would undermine what makes America great, what makes America strong, like education, the ability of students to attend college, medical research and innovation, the ability of our older neighbors to live their lives in dignity in their retirement years through Medicare and long-term care.

Now we get a lot of advice, and the economists across the board, in fact our own Congressional budget office, advised that the best and fastest way to reduce the deficit is to make sure that people across America have jobs and are working.

So, it is inexplicable that the Republican budget proposes to eliminate jobs in construction, education, scientific research and instead heap the burden on middle-class families. Experts predict that the Republican budget will result in job losses of 2 million fewer jobs next year alone, and that’s on top of 750,000 jobs lost by the end of the year due to the sequester Republicans will not replace – just as the economy is improving for our neighbors and small businesses back home.

In contrast, the Democratic alternative will generate 1.2 million more jobs; stop the sequester; and in committee, Democrats proposed to close those special interest tax loopholes that riddle our tax code, Republicans said no. Democrats proposed to offset unwise Republican cuts to medical research, like Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes research at NIH, Republicans said no. Democrats tried to cut the special interest spending in the tax code to offset Republican cuts to students who rely on Pell grants, but Republicans said no. The Democrats in committee, the budget committee, we proposed to strengthen Medicare and replace the Republican plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program, which all it does is simply shift the cost to our families and older neighbors.

Mr. Speaker, this Republican budget is not consistent with American values, it is not fiscally responsible, it is a charade, it is a capitulation to the Tea Party, it does not serve us well in economic recovery in the ways we want to grow America. It’s a plan for economic weakness. It’s a receding vision of American greatness in education, scientific research and infrastructure, and dignity for our parents and grandparents in their retirement years.

I urge you to vote no on the Republican budget and support the balanced, Democratic alternative.