Ronald Dellums: “we come to the last moments of this debate. I have stated on numerous occasions that the most significant thing that any…”

“we come to the last moments of this debate. I have stated on numerous occasions that the most significant thing that any of us do is to adopt a national budget for this country, because our budget speaks to our values, our principles, and our priorities. Are there specific individual items in this budget or any other budget that some of us may disagree with? If we applied that test, we would vote against all the budgets, because there is no perfect budget out here. But what is important, Mr. Chairman, is that we rise above the minutia, because those matters can be worked out. This is a starting point. What each of us in these Chambers must do is embrace that budget that in a general way speaks to our vision about the hopes and the dreams, the aspirations and the needs of the American people and vote for whichever budget we believe best does that. Which budget in its military budget speaks to the realities of the post-cold-war world and attempts to reverse the extraordinary expenditures that characterized the cold war? I believe the budget before us does that and reverses that trend. Which budget embraces a vision that reverses the trend toward big tax breaks and corporate giveaways? I believe this budget does that.”