Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2008
Floor Speech
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008
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Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in opposition to the Republican budget alternative and in strong support of the Democratic budget.
I applaud my colleagues on the other side of the aisle for bringing forward a budget alternative, which is no small feat, so we can have a thorough debate about our Nation's priorities.
I would also like to add that I support their commitment to reforming mandatory spending programs. It is a significant problem on the horizon that Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, former Fed Chairman Greenspan, the Comptroller General, and others have forewarned us about. While I support their concept of reigning in mandatory spending, I suspect we differ in how to go about that.
What bothers me more about this process is not that we have disagreements, because we are going to have disagreements on where we spend the money and who pays for it. Those are legitimate arguments that should be vigorously debated. But the rhetoric that we use that surrounds it I think is unfair on both sides of the aisle.
I was not here in 2001, but I voted for about half of the 2003 tax cuts because I thought it was the right policy for this country. However, I did not agree with other budget policies. I don't believe that Republican budgets addressed critical health care and education priorities, or met the needs of our veterans. And the policies added staggering amounts to our Nation's debt. Regardless of how we got here, I think we ought to not fool ourselves about where we actually are. This is a train wreck that we find ourselves in, that the former Republican majority could not right. It was such a train wreck that Republicans could not pass a budget and could not finish the appropriations process last year. Democrats had to do a continuing resolution when we assumed the majority this year to clean up the mess that was left behind.
According to the Bush Administration's own numbers, the policies of President Bush and the Republican Congress put us on pace to increase the federal debt by well over $4 trillion by 2008. By comparison, it took the first 41 presidents combined to accumulate a total of $4 trillion in debt.
The debt and deficits we have racked up are not sustainable over time. They undermine America's economic strength by driving up interest rates and reducing investment. They force us to become increasingly beholden to foreign nations, as three-fourths of all new federal borrowing has come from foreign investors such as China and Japan. And they mortgage our children's future, forcing them to pay back the mountains of debt we are incurring today. We should be investing in our children's future, not borrowing from it.
We have a responsibility to begin cleaning up the fiscal mess that we inherited. The Democratic budget does just that and promises a new direction for our country. What we are trying to do with the Democratic budget is to take tow trucks to this train wreck and pull those cars off the track. Then, somehow, we have got to straighten out the track. It is going to be a lot of tough work and a lot of hammering on those tracks to get them back in line. And then we have got to set those railcars back up on the railroad track and somehow get this train moving again.
Correcting the fiscal course of our country cannot be achieved overnight, but I believe that this budget is a good first step. It addresses our Nation's priorities. It institutes tough spending control measures and fiscal discipline. It provides for responsible tax relief. And it brings our budget back to balance within five years.
The gentleman from South Carolina, Mr. SPRATT, should be commended for helping to right this train. The budget may not be perfect, but he deserves a tremendous amount of credit for what he has done and the Blue Dog Coalition certainly appreciates his efforts. We think we are headed in the right direction and are on the right track.
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