“The first way out of a ditch is to stop digging. Unfortunately, appointing Jim Nussle as OMB Director is another example of President Bush digging our nation in deeper. As a Congressman, Mr. Nussle has a long record as one of the chief architects of the President’s failed economic agenda. Under this President’s watch, our nation has squandered its surplus and has run record deficits. At the same the President’s economic policies have failed the American people. The typical American family earns less in real wages today than they did when the President took office. More Americans are without health insurance and for those that are fortunate to have health insurance, it has never been costlier. The cost of sending your children to college – the key for their economic security and the nation’s future prosperity – is skyrocketing and is in danger of becoming out of reach for many families. Gas prices have more than doubled, our roads and bridges are literally collapsing and the President fails to fully fund our nation’s infrastructure. Of course, the President still refuses to include the real costs of the war in Iraq in his budget.

“I agreed with Secretary Rice when she stated today that ‘the security of the American people depends on the stability and success of foreign societies.’  In this period of globalization, we close ourselves off from the world at our own peril. America is at its strongest and greatest when it is actively engaged in the world. We uphold our national security and our values of justice and compassion when we help others combat disease, illiteracy and poverty; when we champion the oppressed; and when we actively try to defuse regional conflicts.

February 5, 2007

“The budget should reflect a set of priorities that can best advance opportunity, prosperity, and security for all Americans, now and into the future.  This budget regrettably comes up far short.

March 16, 2006
Washington, DC – Senator Chris Dodd made the following statement after the Senate narrowly passed the budget by a vote of 51-to-49 late last night.

“Our nation is the strongest in the world. Our people have the ability to meet any and all challenges. But unfortunately this Administration and Congress have pushed us off course into dangerous waters. And instead of correcting that ill-advised course, they continue to steer us toward the rocky shoals of fiscal irresponsibility. This budget confirms that. Instead of paying down the massive debt that has ballooned under President Bush, this budget only adds to the record debt racked up by this Administration. Instead of investing in our people and our nation’s security, this budget hands out goodies and treats to special interests and those at the very top.

At this time of year, as we gather with the ones we love and give thanks for all that we have, our thoughts also turn to those most in need. They may be people we know or people we've never met: families who can't afford to heat their homes during the cold winter months or pay their health care bills; children struggling to learn in broken and overcrowded schools; or working men and women who will receive pink slips instead of pay checks in their holiday mail this year. They may also be among the hundreds of thousands of Americans who suffered extraordinary losses in the destruction wreaked by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.

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This past week, the White House made a stunning declaration about the phenomenon known as “offshoring” or “outsourcing,” which describes the exodus of jobs from America to foreign shores. An annual economic report to Congress, signed by the President, actually praised offshoring as beneficial to American workers. The day the report was released, the President’s top economic adviser called outsourcing “a good thing.”