Congressional Budget for the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2009

Floor Speech

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET FOR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2009 -- (Senate - May 15, 2008)

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Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, 2 years ago, Democrats campaigned on tax relief for middle-class families. They called for fiscal restraint and lowering the national debt. But as we have seen over the last year, our good friends are more concerned with increasing taxation, increasing regulation, and increasing litigation. The budget they unveiled this year is the latest example.

If we were to follow this budget, it would go a long way toward turning us into a country like France, at a time when even the French, as we all know, are trying to pull back and trying to get out of the ditch into which they have put themselves.

This budget lifts the curtain on what they have in store for America's already overburdened taxpayers. Instead of lowering taxes on America's working families and small businesses, this budget contains the largest tax hike in U.S. history.

It is not just the rich who would see their tax bills increase by an average of $2,300 a year; it is taxpayers making as little as $31,850, and couples earning $63,700. These are families the Democrats are calling rich and on whom they want to raise taxes.

Under this budget, every American would see his or her share of the national debt rise by $6,440 as a result of dramatically higher spending requests.

At a time when American families are tightening their belts and checking their own spending habits, Washington should be doing the same. Yet they are proposing the opposite. At a time of serious economic concern, they want to grow the Federal budget to over $1 trillion in nonemergency spending.

We have heard a lot of talk over the last few months from the other side about how middle-class families are struggling to make ends meet. We even worked together to pass a stimulus package that puts money back in the wallets of middle-class families. But now our good friends on the other side want to take that money back--and then some--to fund their irresponsible spending hikes.

Let's be clear about what this budget is: It is the Democrats' way of saying yes to the failed tax-and-spend policies of the past. American families cannot afford this budget, American job creators cannot afford this budget, and neither can our economy.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

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