Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2005

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2005 -- (House of Representatives - March 25, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 574 and rule XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union for the further consideration of the concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res. 393.

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Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.
As we heard the gentleman from Texas say, the Blue Dog budget is not just a responsible budget, it is an honest budget. It matches the President's overall spending levels, it extends tax relief for our middle-class families, and most important, it pays for that tax relief.

The Blue Dog budget includes the strongest budget enforcement mechanisms of any budget being debated here today. It extends the pay-as-you-go rules to both the spending side and the revenue side. To be clear, neither the Republican budget nor their alternative being offered by the Republican Study Committee does that.

Republicans rejected the PAYGO amendment in the Committee on the Budget on a strict party-line vote. They rejected the amendment in the Committee on Rules on a strict party-line vote, and they have refused to put the PAYGO provisions in their budget.

We expect our constituents to pay their bills, and I do not know why some folks here in Congress think we should be exempt from that standard. Our constituents did not send us here to play games with their tax dollars and play games with the budget. They sent us here to balance the budget.

Vote for the Blue Dog budget. It is strong on enforcement and responsible on spending and revenue.