[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 39 (Thursday, March 25, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H1487]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           BUDGET RESOLUTION

  (Mr. PORTMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to say I am looking forward to 
voting on the budget later today. This budget is a good document 
because it does what we know works to get the deficit under control. 
First, it restrains spending, extremely important. Second, it allows 
the economy to continue to grow, as my friend from Montana just talked 
about, by not raising taxes on the American people. Significantly, the 
budget also provides for the prescription drug benefit this Congress 
passed late last year. After spending 5 years talking about it, a lot 
of rhetoric, a real political football, we finally on a bipartisan 
basis provided prescription drug benefits in a meaningful way.
  What numbers will we be relying on in the budget? We will rely on the 
Congressional Budget Office, as under the rules of the House we are 
required to do. There has been a lot of discussion about what numbers 
we should use. Of course we are going to use the Congressional Budget 
Office as we must. There are other estimates out there. Some may be 
right, some may be wrong; but this Congress is doing the right thing by 
providing a prescription drug benefit and providing under the rules of 
the House for the right estimate of those costs.

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