Opportunity, Security, Responsibility and Fairness
April 2nd, 2009 by KarinaThis evening, the House passed the FY 2010 Budget Resolution (H.Con.Res. 85) by a vote of 233-196. The 2010 Budget Resolution incorporates the four key priorities of the President’s budget. It makes strategic investments in education, health care reform, and energy independence that are necessary to restore our crumbling economy and put the country in a position to remain globally competitive. It also takes the needed steps to restore fiscal sustainability by cutting the deficit by nearly two-thirds by 2013. The budget provides the fiscal blueprint that will allow Congress to debate and adopt legislation that will reach these goals, but, by its nature, the Budget Resolution does not dictate the specifics of the legislation.
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House Budget Committee charts on the Chairman’s Mark>>
Speaker Pelosi:
Speaker Pelosi:
“This budget upholds the principle of responsibility. The budget resolution begins the process of turning around the Republican budget legacy of deep deficits, mounting debt, and economic decline due to the Bush Administration’s reckless fiscal policy. It takes steps to put the budget back on a fiscally sustainable path by restoring fiscal responsibility and cutting the deficit by more than one half by 2013. It upholds the principle of responsibility for our planet, by investing in science, technology, and renewable energy resources to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) begins the House floor debate of the rule providing for consideration of the budget resolution and speaks against the Republican substitute budget:
Rep. McGovern:
“Because of the recovery package that we passed a few weeks ago, a family in Massachusetts will see an increase in their food stamp benefits by around $39 dollars a month - but the Republican budget eliminates that increase, literally taking food out of the mouths of Americans already struggling to make ends meet. This increase averages out to a little more than a dollar a day. Now, many of my colleagues spend three or four times that amount on a latte. Maybe $39 dollars a month isn’t a big deal to those in this chamber, but it’s a lot of money for people who have been adversely impacted by this lousy economy. I believe it is wrong to cut food and nutrition programs for vulnerable people in order to pay for capital gains tax cuts for Wall Street traders.”
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) refutes the Republican myth that an energy proposal before Congress would create a $3,100 tax for families. As Think Progress reports, the author of the MIT study Republicans reference for their figure has denounced the Republican distortion:
Rep. Blumenauer:
“The Republicans are intentionally misrepresenting the research from MIT….now i would suggest that it’s further flawed, because we have in the budget left this element to be worked on by people who want to legislate, but this canard ought to be rejected.”
Rep. Rob Andrews (D-NJ):
Rep. Andrews:
“Those on the minority side gnash their teeth and weep that the debt, according to them, will be doubled in five years - they know all about that, because that’s exactly what they just did. They just doubled the national debt in the last five years under their watch. The fact of the matter is that this plan reduces the deficit by two thirds over the next five years.”
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY):
Rep. Maloney:
“We can choose to honor the pledge we made to the American people in the last election, and begin the process of health care reform, make investments that will lead to energy independence, and invest the needed funds to reinvigorate our educational system - or we can follow the same failed policy of the past that brought us to the crisis we find ourselves in today.”
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) speaks against the Republican substitute budget:
Rep. DeLauro:
“This is cutting food programs for hungry kids - we know what the devastating effects of unemployment, the cut off for benefits for health care. People today are going to food pantries who never thought in their lives that they would have to do that. A gentleman who says ‘I have to take care of my kids, I never thought I would go to a food pantry, I was humiliated and I felt like a lowlife, but my kids need to eat.’ That’s what this budget would cut: nutrition programs.”
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) speaks against the Republican Study Committee’s substitute budget:
Rep. Van Hollen:
“This budget, like the next Republican budget we will see, is going to slam a brake on the economic recovery plan that Congress passed and is now working its way through our economy, through all the communities in this country. While that economic recovery plan is putting shovels in the ground and putting people back to work, this budget puts up a big stop sign, and says ‘We’re not going to provide any funds after the first year, we’re going to take those shovels away, we’re going to take those jobs back.’ I think anybody who thinks that the economic recovery plan should be stopped after only one year does not have a clear understanding of the economic pain that is being experienced throughout this country.”
Chairman Spratt (D-SC) closes the floor debate:
Chairman Spratt:
“If you want to vote for bold initiatives, like health care for the millions who don’t have insurance, our resolution lays out the framework for helping that to happen, and for funding it so the net cost is not adding to the deficit. If you want to say to the next child you meet in a classroom, ‘You can go to college, yes you can. You can go because Pell Grants will help pay the way if you do your studies and work hard.’ If you want to look that child in the eye and say just that, our resolution is the resolution you should vote for.”