Karen Bass: “I rise in support of this great budget plan. I had the opportunity a few minutes ago to listen to the distinguished…”

“I rise in support of this great budget plan. I had the opportunity a few minutes ago to listen to the distinguished minority leader express his opposition to this plan. In the course of his discussion, he exhorted us to look out for the future of our children and to think about our children. And that, Mr. Chairman, is exactly why we need to adopt this plan, because this plan will get us on track to balancing the budget and reducing the debt that we are passing onto our children and our grandchildren. I came here 3 years ago to change the culture of Washington. As a new member of the Committee on the Budget, I was greeted with an administration plan, a 5-year plan that contained $150 billion deficits for all 5 years. If we add up the deficits for all of the 5 years of the plan we have before us tonight, it does not equal the deficit that we had in one fiscal year in 1992. Indeed we have before us a plan that will reduce overall spending by over almost a trillion dollars over the next decade, save Medicare, which we have been talking about now for 2 years, save this program for the next generation and implement permanent tax relief for working families and small business people, the folks I represent in the Second Congressional District.”