[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3652-3653]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   DEMOCRATIC BUDGET IS FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE BUT ALSO FUNDS CRITICAL 
                               PRIORITIES

  (Mr. BUTTERFIELD asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Mr. Speaker, this week the House will consider a 
Democratic budget that will strengthen our economy and make America 
safer. After years of devastating cuts by the Bush administration, our 
budget is fiscally responsible, while also ensuring that we invest in 
the American people's priorities.
  At a time of economic uncertainty, the Democratic budget rejects 
President Bush's cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, while also adding $4.9 
billion for veterans health care.
  Despite the President's repeated vetoes of our legislation to ensure 
that 10 million children have access to health care, our budget 
accommodates the $50 billion that would be needed over the next 5 years 
to make this goal a reality. We're still hopeful that enough 
Republicans will join us in overriding

[[Page 3653]]

the President's ill-advised and noncompassionate veto.
  Mr. Speaker, the Democratic budget is able to address all of the 
health care needs while balancing the budget by 2012 without raising 
taxes.

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