SPRINGFIELD - U.S. Rep. Phil Hare lauded the $2.9 trillion budget resolution passed by House Democrats this week, saying it would restore needed funding for veterans, health care and education programs.

"It was an easy budget for me to vote for," said Hare, D-Rock Island, at a news conference Friday at the state Capitol.

The budget resolution, congressional Democrats' spending blueprint for the next four years, would increase funding for military and domestic programs and promises a $153 billion surplus by 2012 by allowing a number of tax cuts to expire over the next few years.

The resolution passed Thursday by a vote of 216-210. Every Republican House member, along with 12 Democrats, voted "no."

In particular, Hare pointed to several areas where the Democrats restored funding cuts recommended in President Bush's budget proposal, including $200 million for Head Start, $15 million for prosthetic limbs for armed forces veterans and $1.2 billion for Medicare.

"Really what this budget is about is putting our money where our mouths are - helping our veterans, helping education, helping the environment (and) homeland security," Hare said.

But House Republicans have sharply criticized the Democrats' budget proposal, as it would not renew a number of temporary tax cuts passed by the GOP-led Congress during Bush's first term.

U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, said in a statement that if the tax cuts die, the average Illinois taxpayer would see a $3,282 increase in his or her federal tax bill.

"The harsh effect of their plan is the fact that they are allowing the current tax policies to expire; in other words, they raise taxes on over 4.7 million Illinoisans," said Shimkus, who supported an unsuccessful GOP alternative proposal that claimed to ensure a budget surplus by 2012 while keeping the tax cuts in place.

U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Peoria, could not be reached for comment Friday.

Hare said letting the Republican tax cuts expire "is not a tax increase," and he noted that the Democrats' proposal includes a alternative minimum tax waiver for the middle class.

The alternative minimum tax was created to ensure the rich paid some income tax, but it now snags many middle-class taxpayers as well.

"It's a tax increase if we were to take those (alternative minimum) tax breaks away from lower- and middle-income people," Hare said. "But we don't have to under this budget."

House leaders will now have to enter into budget negotiations with their Senate counterparts. The Senate's budget resolution, passed last week, includes spending increases similar to those in the House proposal but anticipates no budget surplus on the assumption some tax cuts will be renewed.

Also Friday, Hare urged Attorney General Antonio Gonzales to step down for his alleged involvement in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys for being insufficiently loyal to Bush.

Gonzales has denied playing any role in the firings, but those claims have been contradicted by internal Justice Department e-mails and Senate testimony by his former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson.

"I think the American people deserve better from the chief law enforcement officer of this country," said Hare, who also took issue with Bush's refusal to allow administration officials to testify under oath before Congress about the firings.

"It doesn't matter whether you're a Democrat or Republican president," he said. "We are the Congress of the United States. We should have oversight."