[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8207]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             SUPPORT THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS BUDGET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, the Congressional Black Caucus is 
offering a budget to help us get out of the financial mess that we're 
in. We have seen this chart before, it shows the deficit over the 
years, how in 1993 we started to eliminate the deficit, ran the budget 
up to a surplus, creating a 10-year budget of over $5.5 trillion. The 
policies that have now gotten us into a mess have changed that $5.5 
trillion surplus into an almost $3 trillion deficit, a swing of $8.5 
trillion.
  The first thing the Black Congressional Caucus budget does is to 
repeal the policies that got us into this mess by rolling back the 2001 
and 2003 tax cuts for that portion of a person's household income over 
$200,000. By rolling back the brackets for the first two brackets and 
eliminating the tax cuts for capital gains and dividends, primarily for 
that portion of the household income over $200,000. People will say it 
is a big tax cut. So what. Those policies got us in the ditch. We are 
repealing those policies to get out of the ditch.
  Now what does that do to the budget? The Congressional Black Caucus 
deficit is better every year than the President's budget. The 
President's budget is in red, the Democratic alternative is in blue. 
The Congressional Black Caucus beats both of them every year, except 
the last year, we only had a $141 billion surplus in the last year, the 
Democratic budget has $153 billion, but of course, the President's 
budget is still in the ditch. We have significantly reduced the deficit 
$339 billion better bottom line cumulatively than the President.
  We also save interest. By reducing the deficit, we save interest. 
Every year, we have saved more and more interest. $27 billion less 
interest paid over 5 years than the President's budget. In fact, $18 
billion more than the Democratic alternative.
  We have also addressed our priorities with the money left over. After 
we have reduced the deficit and reduced the amount of interest, we have 
also made important investments. SCHIP, $66 billion more in health care 
than the Democratic budget, over $100 billion more than the President. 
We can fund health care for each and every child in America.
  No Child Left Behind. We are funding over $158 billion more in 
education and training than the President. We have honored our veterans 
by spending $42 billion more than the President's budget. We have 
attacked fraud, waste and abuse in the Democratic budget. We have made 
communities more secure with investments in juvenile justice, gang 
prevention, prison re-entry. We have provided community support through 
community development block grants in nutrition and housing. We have 
contributed to diplomacy by fighting global AIDS, child survival. We 
have spent significantly more in these priorities, Mr. Speaker, than 
both the Democratic alternative and certainly the President's budget.
  The Congressional Black Caucus repeals the policy that put us into a 
mess. We address important priorities that are so important, and we 
have a much more fiscally responsible budget.
  We would ask the House to adopt the Congressional Black Caucus budget 
that gets us out of the mess and puts on the right track.

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