The Budget

Floor Speech

THE BUDGET -- (Senate - March 05, 2008)

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I rise this morning to respond to the ranking member of the Budget Committee, who came out a few moments ago to talk about the budget. We are in the process right now of putting together this year's budget. It will be voted on in committee today or tomorrow and, of course, then out here on the floor. We will have a lot of floor time over the next week to discuss the budget.

I felt it was really important to set the record straight because it is that rhetorical time again when we will hear our colleagues on the other side of the aisle come out and say Democrats are tax-and-spend liberals. Let me set the record straight.

Last year's budget had a $180 billion tax cut in it--not for the wealthiest Americans but for hard-working middle-class Americans.

We worked very hard to put together a fiscally responsible budget. We are not going to sit here and listen to ``tax and spend'' thrown at us time and time again when, in reality, with the Democratic President 7 years ago we came into the time with a budget that had a surplus, which we soon saw diminished incredibly, and we are now in deficit spending because of an irresponsible tax cut the Republicans have been pushing for the wealthiest of Americans, which even Senator JOHN MCCAIN didn't vote for at the time. It did leave us without the capacity to make sure we had the investments we needed to be able to ensure that Americans can stay in their homes; that they can have roads they can drive on to get to work; that they can make sure their children have the kind of education they need so they can get a job and contribute back to this country; and, importantly, to take care of our veterans who are coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan and finding long waiting lines at our medical facilities and not getting the adequate care they need.

The budget that the Budget chair will present this afternoon is, once again, a fiscally responsible document that understands the needs of Americans and will make sure we are responding to the crisis we are in today in this country and invest in America's people. It is fiscally responsible. It is not about tax cuts or tax increases, it is about making sure we have the revenues available to make sure every single American today has the opportunity that is available for them, that dream that they can live to be a strong American citizen and to keep our communities and America strong.

So I reject the argument that we all hear thrown at us time and again that Democrats are ``tax-and-spend'' liberals. We are fiscally responsible Democrats, and we are proud of it.

I yield the floor.

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