[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 86 (Thursday, May 24, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S6830]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THE BUDGET

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, last week the Senate and House of 
Representatives voted to adopt a budget resolution for the upcoming 
fiscal year. I was proud to support this budget, which, in my view, 
represents an important first step towards returning our nation to a 
healthy and strong fiscal and economic course. Like the budget of any 
family or business, the federal budget provides a framework for 
responsibly meeting our nation's most important priorities while 
ensuring that we are living within our means. This year's budget 
restores much-needed fiscal discipline while better targeting our 
resources towards the investments that will best promote economic 
growth, national security, and broad-based opportunity.
  First, the budget resolution reinstates pay-as-you-go rules, which 
require that any new spending or tax cuts be paid for with spending 
cuts or new sources of revenue--rather than simply adding the cost to 
the national debt for our children and grandchildren to repay with 
interest. These rules played a major role in helping us to achieve 
Federal budget surpluses in the late 1990s. The resolution also puts a 
stop to procedural abuses that had been used by the previous leadership 
in the Congress, notably the use of budget reconciliation protections--
designed for legislation that reduces the deficit--to ram through 
passage of budget-busting tax bills. These procedural improvements, 
combined with reasonable and responsible spending limits and revenue 
targets, provide for much-improved--and much-needed fiscal discipline 
on both the spending and revenue sides of the ledger.
  In the 1990s, we saw how responsible budget policies and economic 
growth reinforced each other in a cycle that lifted Americans' standard 
of living across the board. Under the current administration, by 
contrast, Americans have seen the opposite effect, as irresponsible and 
poorly targeted fiscal policies have squandered the previous decade's 
fiscal gains while economic growth has accrued more and more narrowly 
to a smaller segment of the population. The Federal budget has declined 
from a surplus of $236 billion in 2000 to a deficit of $248 billion 
last year, while the national debt has grown from $5.6 trillion to $8.8 
trillion. Over the same period, real median household income in our 
country has fallen by nearly $1,300.
  Within the context of fiscal responsibility, the budget adopted last 
week puts in place a framework for restoring the investments necessary 
for broad-based economic growth and a return to budget surpluses. 
Rather than leaving middle-class families behind, it focuses on 
strengthening the middle class--the backbone of our economy.
  This begins with promoting an agenda of innovation and 
entrepreneurship. The President's budget this year--for the second 
consecutive year--proposed the largest cut to education in the history 
of the Department of Education, along with cuts to research and 
development and technology transfer. It would be hard to find a worse 
idea than to cut the investments that allow our children to fulfill 
their maximum potential and drive our nation's economic growth now and 
in the future. This budget rejects the president's cuts, providing an 
additional $6.3 billion for education from preschool to graduate 
school. As I have said numerous times before, we can be confident that 
the investment we make here will be returned to us many times over.
  This year's budget also directs more resources towards improving 
heath care quality and coverage, and reducing cost--an issue that 
affects every American family and businesses' bottom line. The 
resolution includes a deficit-neutral reserve fund to help cover 
uninsured children and funds for health information technology and 
comparative effectiveness to help reduce skyrocketing costs.
  Just as importantly, with our military being stretched to its limits, 
the budget includes full funding for restoring force readiness and 
adequately equipping our military personnel serving in harm's way. It 
also includes $3.6 billion above the Bush administration's budget to 
address the needs of veterans when they return home, because the brave 
Americans who have served our country deserve much better than the 
conditions that were revealed in the recent Walter Reed Army Medical 
Center scandal.
  The priorities laid out in the budget adopted last week contrast 
sharply with the agendas of recent years. Where the Bush administration 
and previous leadership in the Congress sacrificed all else at the 
altar of high-income tax cuts, this year's budget will keep taxes low 
while restoring the importance of education, health care, clean and 
renewable energy, and the needs of our military. This change is a 
welcome development that puts our Nation on a better, stronger, more 
prosperous, and more secure course for the future.

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