Congressional Budget for the U.S. Government for Fiscal Year 2004

Mr. SCHUMER. I thank my colleague from North Dakota for offering this amendment which is timely and important.
    
What is this budget? Why do we have a Budget Act? Why do we have a budget resolution? It is to set priorities. If we didn't have to set priorities, we could have as many tax cuts as we wanted and as much spending as we wanted and as big a deficit as we wanted, and the country would be in chaos.
    
The Budget Act is a disciplining process that says: Everyone wants a whole lot of good things in America, but we have to set priorities. And we say this as we are in the shadow of war.
    
I have spoken on this and issued a statement last night, and I will be speaking more later. I pray for our soldiers and hope and pray that Saddam sees the light and abdicates. But if he doesn't, we will back our soldiers and do everything we can. That is a priority that we have to set and will set. But we have other priorities.
    
The Senator from North Dakota has wisely said, before we set those other priorities, we ought to figure out what the war and the ensuing peace will cost. I, for one, believe tax cuts are appropriate to stimulate the economy. The amendment wisely allows that. But it says before we go into a long train of large tax cuts—it doesn't say don't do them—let's figure out as best we can what the costs of the war are. Are the costs of the war going to crowd out funding for Medicare and Social Security? Are the costs of the war going to crowd out money for education or money for transportation? They may. We just ought to know it before we do it. Then, if we do have a crowding out, do people prefer, say, Medicare or tax cuts? Do they prefer education or tax cuts? Do they prefer transportation money or tax cuts? That is what a budget resolution is all about.
    
To proceed with a budget resolution that is going to offer massive tax cuts without knowing the cost of the war would drive any accountant crazy. Last year we were all saying, accountants have to get a whole lot better. Any accountant in his first year of taking an accounting course in college would say: If you have a huge cost coming up—a cost we all support, the cost of the war—don't do other types of things, whether it be spending or cuts, before you know what that cost is.
    
My colleague has put together a great amendment. In fact, if you are a fiscal conservative, above all you should support the amendment. I don't care what your ideology is, this is a fiscally conservative amendment. It says, get your ducks in order; figure out what your costs are before you engage in a massive program of tax expenditure.
    
It leaves room for a stimulus which we all need and will support. But it simply says, figure out your priorities because if we don't and we do a budget resolution and we don't know what the costs of the war are going to be, one of two things will happen: We will have a deficit that goes way beyond what anyone imagined and it will wreck our economy, or other kinds of spending needs will be crowded out—spending for education, spending for transportation, spending for Medicare and Social Security. All we are saying is: Figure out the priorities.
    
It is virtually reckless to do a budget resolution until we know what the costs are. I say this as somebody who is not opposed to spending money on a war. But at the same time we have war, to have massive tax cuts and not know what the other consequences will be for our deficit and spending, as I said before, would drive any student in the first year of Accounting 101 absolutely crazy.
    
I thank my colleague from North Dakota for putting together a fiscally conservative and responsible amendment, for restoring some order to make sure that the Budget Act, which says, let's not be kids in a candy store and just pick everything without knowing the consequences—that is what the Budget Act says—to make sure it has some real teeth and real meaning.
    
I thank my colleague from North Dakota for offering the amendment. I hope we will have bipartisan support for it because it is only fair and right.
    
I yield back the remainder of my time.