John Doolittle: “Mr. Chairman, in closing the arguments for this amendment tonight for the conservative budget substitute, let me be…”

“Mr. Chairman, in closing the arguments for this amendment tonight for the conservative budget substitute, let me be clear: We support the effort that the Committee on the Budget has made and applaud them in that effort. Some of us will be voting for it, some of us will not, but the debate is not about the merits of their hard work and it has been tremendously hard work. The debate tonight is about families and whether, as their representatives, we will increase the family budget or increase the Washington budget. As this chart shows, that my colleague from Arizona pointed out, our conservative budget alternative takes $109 billion from Washington's budget and gives it to families in their budget. Now, while some people say that the economy is growing, the reality is that families in America are struggling just to get by. Some are spending more on food, clothing and shelter and transportation combined, they pay more in taxes than what they do in their budget for those necessities. This amendment is necessary for two reasons. As this chart shows, the President drove a good bargain for Washington in his budget deal, because for every $1 of tax cuts, we have $10 of increased government spending over the next 5 years. The conservative budget would reduce that, $1 of tax cuts for $4 of spending.”