Mike Levin: “when I came here 20 years ago, I was told that this was the greatest deliberative body in this world; and here we are…”

“when I came here 20 years ago, I was told that this was the greatest deliberative body in this world; and here we are discussing this huge budget and what the majority does is to reserve the balance of its time. Where is their argument? Where is their response? My Republican colleagues sit there like people of stone. So let me sum up what the facts are as I see them. Here is what the Republicans are saying in their budget resolution. I have heard the gentleman from California say, get back to the growth of the late 1990s. They are doing it by adopting policies exactly the opposite of the 1990s. What my colleagues are saying is, if the hole is deep, dig it deeper. My colleagues try to show much in tax cuts, and now they are going to do it again. They have gone from a projected surplus, as we have said so many times, of $5.6 trillion to $2 trillion in deficits these next 10 years. What my Republican colleagues are saying is, when in debt, mortgage more and more. My colleagues say they are meeting a deadline. They are doing it, I think, clearly by dealing death to fiscal responsibility. But I want to say in a few words, this is worse than fiscal irresponsibility. I say to my colleagues, this is fiscal madness.”