Concurrent Resolution On The Budget For Fiscal Year 2008

Floor Speech

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008 -- (House of Representatives - March 28, 2007)

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Ms. KAPTUR. I would like to deeply thank, Mr. Chairman, the chairman of our Budget Committee, the very able and distinguished gentleman from South Carolina, JOHN SPRATT, who has led our committee to produce a budget that will balance in the next 5 years with no tax increase. It is going to take pay-as-you-go and it is going to take a real regimen to correct America's net negative savings rate.

Certainly, the Bush administration has done much damage in the last 6 years by making a mess of fiscal policy, just as it has made a mess of foreign policy; and now we have got these overhanging budget deficits and trade deficits. For, in fact, in 2001, the administration inherited a projected 10-year surplus of nearly $6 trillion; and within 2 years alone the surplus had been eliminated and we began piling up debt, adding $2.8 trillion over 6 years, much of it purchased by foreign investors, which I will talk about here in just a second.

I want to thank Chairman Spratt for doing what is right for America. Many organizations, like the Concord Coalition, states, ``Thus, to be clear, the Democratic budget resolution does not call for nor require a tax increase.''

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said this month as well, ``The House Democratic plan does not include a tax increase.''

And the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution of this month also says, ``The Democratic budget would not raise taxes.''

I think that those on the other side of the aisle doth protest too much, because, in fact, you didn't produce this kind of budget. Now, you might be well intentioned. I used to think Republicans balanced budgets. I have since learned differently after serving here in this Congress.

I want to talk about what is so dangerous about the debt that the Republicans and the Bush administration have accrued. If you look at who is footing the bill, it is foreign countries, Japan, the oil-producing and exporting nations, China. In fact, China now holds over $1 trillion in U.S. dollar reserves, and they are looking to diversify away from the Dow. And if you look at what is happening to the price of gold, it is skyrocketing as the U.S. dollar's worth is dropping.

Our accounts are badly out of order. This budget maintains in the reserve account all of the tax breaks that were given to the American people, the extension of the child tax credit, the marriage penalty relief, extension of the research and air experimentation tax credit, extension of the deduction for State and local sales taxes, school construction bonds and so forth.

So even with the incredible drag of the Iraq war on our Federal budget and our Nation's economy, this Democratic budget that Chairman Spratt and members of our committee have produced does achieve balance within 5 years. It is rigorous, it will make the Nation more healthy, and I just want to commend him for taking a most difficult challenge and doing what is right for the American people, for our children and grandchildren.

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