[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 25 (Tuesday, March 2, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H713]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     A BUDGET VISION FOR ALL TO SEE

  (Mr. DeLAY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. DeLAY. Madam Speaker, tomorrow the House Committee on the Budget 
will hold its Members Day hearings as the congressional budget-writing 
process kicks into high gear around here. As usual in election years, 
politics will play a decisive role in that budget debate.
  This is not entirely a bad thing. Congress' annual priority-setting 
document is a good tool, a test Americans can use to judge the 
competing fiscal visions of the two parties. Unfortunately, only one 
party seems to have done its homework for this test.
  The Republican majority, led by the gentleman from Iowa (Chairman 
Nussle) of the Committee on the Budget, is working to craft a 
conference-wide budget that embodies the shared values and priorities 
of our party.
  The Democrat leaders, on the other hand, seem unwilling to go to all 
that trouble. Nobody seems to know. Rather than take hard positions on 
hard issues, the Democrat leadership appears ready to turn their backs 
on those issues and their constituents and leave the American people 
guessing as to their core values.
  On the other hand, the Republican Party's values are clear to 
everyone who asks. They are the same values that have guided our party 
and our Nation through difficult times in the past: security, 
prosperity, and families.
  Republicans believe the job the Federal Government is to do is to 
preserve, defend, and support these three great pillars of American 
democracy. They will all be there in our budget: resources and policies 
to fight and win the war on terror and defend our homeland; protect the 
economy from Democrat tax hikes on parents, married couples and working 
families, while anchoring discretionary spending; maintain the global 
competitiveness of the national economy and encourage companies to 
create jobs here in the United States; and protect and defend American 
families from a culture of violence and self-indulgence that creeps 
deeper into our society every day.
  Whether people agree with us or not, Republicans will at least have 
the courage to lay our vision out for everyone to see; and as we move 
forward in this debate, we can only hope that the Democrats show the 
budget process and the American people the same respect.

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