Responsible Budget Needed

RESPONSIBLE BUDGET NEEDED -- (House of Representatives - March 09, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bonner). Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from California (Mr. Thompson) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, last month the President submitted to us his 2005 budget. This week, later this week, in the Committee on the Budget we are going to have a hearing on and mark-up that budget.

Unfortunately, it is a 402-page document with one huge credibility problem. We are in the middle of a war, and yet it includes no war funding. It is a 5-year budget, but almost 80 percent of the cost of the President's new tax plan does not go into effect until after the 5 years after this budget. It finances a $519 million increase to veterans programs by shifting costs on to the veterans that this budget purports to help. It does that through the health insurance enrollment fees and co-pays on prescription drugs to the very veterans that we are supposed to be helping.

It gives homeland security the largest increase of all the agencies, as it should; but it takes $800 million away from our local firefighters and our local police officers at the same time it says it is going to help these first responders. These are the first line of defense. These are the first responders, and we are taking money away from them in order to pay for them to do the job that they are supposed to do.

It discloses that the Medicare prescription drug benefit costs $135 billion more than we were told it would cost just 2 months ago. This unexpected cost of $135 billion totals more than the budgets of Commerce, Energy, Homeland Security, HUD, Interior, State, and EPA combined.

It calls for $1.2 trillion in new tax cuts, $65 billion in health tax credits, and $43 billion in other new spending; but it claims that we can cut the deficit in half by 2009. These are all new costs, new expenditures that this budget does not pay for.

It is not credible, Mr. Speaker, to say we have presented an accurate and honest budget when it includes no funding for a war we are in the middle of fighting. It is not credible to say that cutting domestic spending by $118 billion will pay for a $1.2 trillion tax cut. It is not credible to say that you are strong on budget enforcement, but only apply the PAYGO rules to mandatory spending programs. It is not credible to say that deficits do not matter when you are spending over $349 billion a year just on the interest payments on our $7 trillion national debt.

Democrats keep getting told that we need to be tough on spending and that if we are tough on spending, all the other problems will take care of themselves. Well, that is another example of this great credibility gap. Blue Dog Democrats are tough on spending, as you will hear from a number of us today who are speaking. We voted for budget alternatives that do not exceed the President on spending. We are tough on spending. And as important, we are responsible on revenue. We do not pretend that you can have a tax cut without paying for it. Rather, we work with what we have got: a war that needs to be paid for, a budget that needs to be balanced, and an American public who looks to their leaders for credibility and for truth.

Right now we are faced with a choice. We can continue buying on credit, or we can begin budgeting with credibility. Our constituents want and our constituents deserve a credible budget. It is incredible that this administration has refused to submit one.

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