[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 44 (Monday, March 16, 2015)]
[House]
[Page H1653]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         2016 BUDGET PRIORITIES

  (Mr. TONKO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, our Vice President, Joe Biden, once said: 
``Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I'll tell you 
what you value.''
  This body's routine budgeting practices have faded away in the last 4 
years only to be replaced by partisan bickering that uses austere 
budgets as messaging tools. These budgets invariably go nowhere, while 
the most vulnerable individuals and families in our communities see 
their needs grow larger and their potential to make their own success 
grow smaller.
  Our national priorities should be simple enough: public investment in 
quality education accessible by every student, infrastructure, job 
training programs, research, and a national energy policy that 
encourages innovation and new jobs. The strategy we have seen of 
cutting our way to prosperity simply does not work. The more we do it, 
the more we cut ourselves down while more nations pass us by.
  As we work our way through the 2016 budgeting process, instead of 
telling our constituents our values, let's show them what we value by 
producing an ambitious budget that creates opportunity for our American 
middle class and those struggling to enter it or to stay in it.

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