[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10886-10887]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  BUDGET--OUR LONG-TERM ECONOMIC PLAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Richardson) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. RICHARDSON. Madam Speaker, we are working to pass this week in 
both the Senate and the House a budget resolution. It is a long-term 
economic plan that we are working together with the administration that 
will mark President Obama's 100th day in service.
  The fallout from the failed policies over the last 8 years has made 
this job even tougher. Let's talk about what has happened over the last 
8 years and what exactly President Obama inherited.
  A record time during the last 8 years, President Bush--and the 
Republicans with that--built on a deficit of $5.8 trillion. When 
President Obama came into this office, a $5.8 trillion deficit; when 
President Bush came in, he had a $5.6 trillion surplus when you looked 
at it over this time period.
  The national debt doubled, and the amount held by foreign countries 
of ownership in this country has more than tripled. The smallest rate 
of job growth in three-quarters of a century. There have been flat 
wages. And more Americans are living in poverty without health care 
insurance.
  But this isn't anything new to the American people. We have 
experienced this. We have seen it firsthand. And the American people 
spoke back in November with an election and said that they wanted a new 
direction and change.
  Our long-term economic plan takes steps to reduce health care costs, 
one of the largest contributors to the deficit, and a growing burden on 
our businesses' ability to compete and families' prosperity.
  Our long-term economic plan is something that the American people 
have been calling for, a true look at transparency, looking at the 
impacts of the cost of the war in both Iraq and in Afghanistan.
  We have to consider in this long-term budget looking at the targeted 
investments that must be made that will ultimately end in savings; 
investments in health care, investments in energy, investments in 
education, and real concrete proposals that will pay for these 
investments.
  This plan marks the beginning of a new era of honesty. I, as a 
Member, had an opportunity to go before the Budget Committee and to 
share what my priorities were, as every Member of Congress had an 
opportunity to do. This is a new era of honesty, budgeting accuracy, 
and openly representing costs like the war, as I previously mentioned. 
Previous Republican budgets masked these costs to make the deficit 
appear to be smaller.
  Our economic plan contains key integrity initiatives to protect the 
taxpayers' money by rooting out waste, fraud and abuse, and saving 
taxpayers nearly $50 billion.
  The American people called for a change, a new direction back in 
November. That is exactly what this Congress is delivering.

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