Press Conference with Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) on the President's Threatened Appropriations Vetoes

Statement

Press Conference with Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV); Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY); Thomas Manger, Chief of Police, Montgomery County, Maryland; Marsha Smith, Health and PE Teacher, Earle B. Wood Middle School, Rockville, MD; and Dr. Shubhada Hooli, Pediatric Resident, Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC; on the President's Threatened Appropriations Vetoes

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SEN. SCHUMER: Well, thank you, Senator Reid. And I want to thank you for your consistent leadership and your leadership in making our party fiscally responsible.

And I want to thank Chief Manger and Marsha Smith and Dr. Hooli for joining us here today.

And, you know, it's a strong word, but it's hard to avoid the word hypocrisy when it comes to President Bush claiming fiscal austerity. He opposes SCHIP even though that's fully paid for. He opposes $22 billion in the budget and that is paid for, too. And then he proposes $196 billion for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, unpaid for.

The president can make a claim based on his values that he believes that the war in Iraq is more important than health care and education and COPS and infrastructure. He can make that argument and the Congress can decide. But he really has no standing, no integrity, to make the claim that he's being fiscally responsible when he threatens to veto $22 billion and proposes $196 billion, unpaid for. Because the green dollars you spend on the war in Iraq and the green dollars you spend for children's health and the green dollars you spend for police officers are exactly the same green dollars. And you want to spend them, you should pay for them.

And we Democrats have tried to do that. For the first year we have PAYGO. For the first time the actual spending by the government will go down rather than up -- not down absolutely, but the percentage will go down, the slope will go down. For the first time, we are being fiscally responsible.

And, you know, it's clear. He's got this hard right base who's alienated and so he has to bring out -- trot out this chip of fiscal responsibility. But if you want to talk the talk, you ought to walk the walk. Let him pay for his $196 billion for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So we're here today because we believe the balance that we have struck is more fiscally responsible and more in keeping with what the American people need. And each of our guests here, whether it's the COPS program, whether it's SCHIP or whether it's scientific research to save lives can represent those values. My guess is, if you ask the American people who they'd side with on both fiscal austerity and the balance and values as to what programs to spend on, they'd overwhelmingly side with us.

Thank you.

And now it's my honor to call on Chief Tom Manger, and he's the chief of police of Montgomery County, Maryland, an area that has benefited from the COPS program.

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