Mike Levin: “this budget agreement has potential for much good. It also has the potential for considerable ill. In the decades of the…”

“this budget agreement has potential for much good. It also has the potential for considerable ill. In the decades of the 1990s, we started on the path toward fiscal responsibility after a decade of fiscal recklessness. This resolution has the promise of moving us ahead further, but whether it fulfills that promise will depend mostly on its implementation, much of which will occur within the Committee on Ways and Means, on which I sit. Our committee will take the first crack as to whether the tax package is fiscally responsible or will blow the budget, thereby threatening continued economic growth; whether the tax package will be aimed at those who stood still or slipped back these last two decades, or at those who have stood on the top rungs of the economic ladder; whether action now is a stepping stone toward still more difficult decisions or an excuse for long-term inaction. I will be especially vigilant from the outset about the implementation of the budget agreement. How it is written will determine my vote on the ultimate product, the reconciliation bill.”