Nancy Pelosi: “Mr. Chairman, today we should have had the opportunity to be engaged in a debate over our Federal budget. This budget…”

“Mr. Chairman, today we should have had the opportunity to be engaged in a debate over our Federal budget. This budget debate should reflect the professional judgment and our most imaginative thinking to create a budget for America's future. We do not all agree on every issue, but we should have been able to have a debate about those issues. Instead, we are faced with a closed rule which forecloses some of that debate; and we are, instead, faced with a budget from the Republican side which is a sham. It is a sham because it hides from view the billions and billions of dollars the Republicans are draining from the Social Security trust fund. It is a sham because it disguises the inadequate prescription drug benefit for seniors as it drains the Medicare trust fund. It is a sham because it ignores the cost of the supplemental appropriations that we know President Bush will be sending to the Congress. When we review the Republican budget, we have to wonder what happened to all of the budget deficits on the Republican side. Have they become an endangered species? Indeed, I think they have become extinct.”