Judd Gregg: “I noted today that the President, speaking before his labor union leadership in Las Vegas, attacked the Republican…”

“I noted today that the President, speaking before his labor union leadership in Las Vegas, attacked the Republican budget and Members of the Republican Senate who voted for that budget, I being one, for underfunding his initiatives in education. I believe that deserves a response because it is a duplicitous statement, to be kind. Let's talk about what has actually happened here. The President sent us a budget. It was a budget which was supposed to follow the agreements which we had reached last year under the 5-year budget agreement which reaches a balanced budget. But because new funds have been identified, according to the President, as a result of the tobacco settlement, he decided to change that. Prior to sending us a budget, the President for days went out on the trail and proposed new program after new program after new program--140 I think is the number, $140 billion worth of new programs. Some of that was money on top of old programs, but the majority of it was on new programs, and all of it was outside the original budget agreement, and so he has sent us his budget which proposes all this new programming. Now, what did the members of the Republican Budget Committee do, and what did the Republican membership of this Senate do in passing the budget out of committee last night? We did two things. One, we said we reached an agreement last year so let's stick with that agreement. Let's continue to work towards balancing this budget.”