Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2009

Statement

Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2009

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. PENCE. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of fiscal responsibility, and, therefore, conscience demands that I rise in opposition to the budget of the liberal Democratic majority in Congress.

The American people deserve to know. We have a $9.3 trillion national debt. They also deserve to know that there are some $53 trillion in unfunded obligations that this government has committed to in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid that our children and grandchildren will have to find some way to resolve and to fund. Frankly, if this government was a business back in Indiana, we'd have to file bankruptcy.

Now, tomorrow Republicans will offer a budget to deal with this fiscal crisis at the national level that's based on spending restraint, entitlement reform. It balances the Federal budget without taxes and without earmarks.

But the answer from the Democrat majority in Congress: The largest budget in American history, $3.1 trillion. The largest 1-year increase in public debt in American history, some $646 billion. More earmarks, higher taxes, and nothing to reform the entitlement spending that threatens the vitality of our economy and the very future of our children and grandchildren.

In 2006, the American people voted for change in Washington, D.C., but they weren't referring to what would be left in their pockets after the Democrats took control. We must balance the Federal budget with fiscal discipline and reform, not with more spending and more taxes. We must reject the policies of the new liberal Democrat majority in Congress and reject this budget.

I urge my colleagues to vote for fiscal discipline and reform and join me in voting against the budget priorities of the liberal Democrat majority in Congress.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source