Adam Schiff: “America needs a wartime budget. We need a budget that will provide the resources necessary to win the war on terrorism…”

“America needs a wartime budget. We need a budget that will provide the resources necessary to win the war on terrorism, that will stimulate our economy without aggravating our deficits, and that will protect and reform Social Security and Medicare but not finance the war out of its trust funds. In sum, our country needs a budget that will call on the American people to make sacrifices to win, sacrifices they are willing to make if only their leaders will have the courage to ask and speak plainly. The President's budget is not there yet. The budget we will vote on in the House this week calls for the most significant increase in military spending in more than two decades, and that increase will enjoy bipartisan support. The budget also proposes significant new tax cuts, and the House leadership has also signaled its interest in making last year's tax cuts permanent. Domestic spending increases only slightly or remains flat. And the budget requires sacrifice. There is only one problem: It is not we who are being asked to sacrifice. It is our children. Advocates of the budget call it balanced. Regrettably, it is anything but balanced.”