Date: 2009-04-29
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Madam Speaker. this ment to tax equity. and fiscal responsibility. budget agreement marks an important mile- This budget provides $1.7 trillion in tax cuts stone on our road to economic recovery. It for middleincome families. permanently exmakes priority. forwardlooking investments in tending the 2001 and 2003 income tax cuts for the vital areas of education. health care and the vast majority of Americans. It also reduces clean energy while providing $1.7 trillion in tax the deficit by nearly twothirds in four years. relief for middle class families. Its also fiscally placing our country on the fiscally sustainable responsible. slashing our federal budget deficit path necessary to regain our economic by two thirds by 2013. Madam Speaker. we didnt dig ourselves strength. this ditch overnight and its going to take some It is time for policymakers at all levels and time to climb out of it. But with President across the ideological spectrum to join toObamas leadership. we are now well on our gether and offer a new vision and new soluto creating the next era of genuine. tions to rebuild our economy. I would like to way shred ten er thank Chairman SPRAT- for his leadership and broadly shared American prosperity. It starts with honest accounting. Rather than dedication to working with Congress to ensure hiding the true cost of our military engage- that this budget provides the framework necments in Iraq and Afghanistan or our domestic essary so that we may improve the health of response to natural disasters off budget. this our nation. reduce expenditures over the long conference report builds them right into the term and ultimately regain the economic prosagreement. Additionally. this budget reaffirms perity of our great nation. the Houses continued commitment to fiscal I ask my colleagues to support this resoludiscipline by requiring statutory PAYGO as a tion and urge its final passage. condition for other policy adjustments in order Mr. POSEY. Madam Speaker. Im disto enforce a realistic baseline. appointed with the budget conference report To build a rock solid foundation for eco- before the House today. Its a $3.555 trillion nomic growth. this agreement invests $100 bil- budget and leaves a $1.233 trillion deficit for lion in educationexpanding early childhood the year 2010. This budget increases taxes by development programs. improving K12 and $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years and the special education and increasing access to Majority admits that the budget deficits never college. It creates a deficitneutral reserve fall below $523 billion. This budget borrows fund to finally provide high quality. affordable from Americans of tomorrow to pay for the health care for every American. It increases wants of this current generation. Over 10 federal funding for clean energy by 10%. And years. the budget more than doubles the nait provides middle class tax relief for millions of tional debt. Americans. I hope the economy recovers for all AmedFinally. this budget takes the $1 trillion def- cans. But sadly. this budget plan takes us icit President Obama inherited and cuts it by down a different path that will harm our longtwo thirds over the next four years. term economy and will likely create sluggish Madam Speaker. this is an honest. properly economic growth. This budget is not the right prioritized and fiscally responsible agreement. prescription for what ails this economy. Our I urge my colleagues support. children and grandchildren deserve better. Congress needs to focus on creating the rght kind of environment for jobcreation. ensuring that businesses small. medium and large can grow and prosper. That means providing the right kinds of incentives for Americans to start a business. or for a business to grow and add jobs. or to provide benefits like health insurance. Sadly. this bill includes a budget process (known as reconciliation) to leave the door open for a plan to raise taxes on millions of small businesses and saddle them with billions of dollars in burdensome and costly "cap and trade" global warming taxes. American workers should be forewarned. the "cap and trade" tax will cost Americans millions of jobs. So I ask. under this budget Whats the incentive to do business here in America? The U.S. has the second highest corporate income tax in the world which encourages employers to close up in America or at least do their expansions overseas rather than here at home. Cap and trade will add a further burden to businesses operating in the U.S. And while this budget hires new bureaucrats in Washington. it allows tens of thousands of highly skilled technicians and engineers at NASA to be laidoff with the end of the space shuttle. Their jobs will of course be outsourced to Russia because the budget fails to bring the next generation space craft online for quite some time. This is a travesty when you think about the millions of high tech American jobs that have been created as a result of our investment in spaceeverything from cell phones. laptops and GPS to wireless technology and even Velcro. While the Budget gives lip service to additional funding for NASA and the Shuttle. the actual language in the budget does not provide actual dollars. would not add any additional Shuttle flights. and does nothing to close the human space flight gap. For two centuries. Americans have worked hard so their children could have better lives and greater opportunity. It seems to me what some want to do is reverse that order by haying our children and grandchildren work hard so we dont have to make the hard choices now. This amounts to generational theft and it is wrong. plain and simple. You know. while families and small businesses are making sacrifices when it comes to their own budget. Washington continues to spend trillions in taxpayer dollarsmoney it doesnt even haveon bailouts and expansion of government programs. This has got to stop and the government has to learn to live within its own means just like everyone else. Madam Speaker. I rise in strong opposition to this budget conference report and urge my colleagues to vote against this plan that will saddle the next generation with an unbearable debt and kill millions of jobs here in America.