Christopher Shays: “I prefer the budget that we are presenting. I prefer it because in our budget we are protecting America, we are…”

“I prefer the budget that we are presenting. I prefer it because in our budget we are protecting America, we are increasing our defense budget, we are increasing our homeland security budget. In our budget, most importantly, and you do not see it to the extent you need to in our colleagues' budgets, we are strengthening the economy and creating new jobs. In our budget, we are providing fiscal responsibility. One of the things I found most curious in the debate in the committee last week was that when we added up all the dollars that were spent in amendments offered by our Democratic colleagues, they amounted to over $1 trillion. Now, they would say to you what they did is they eliminated our tax cuts, and, in some cases, increased taxes to pay for their $1 trillion of new spending over the next 10 years. When we came to Washington, a number of us said we wanted to get our country's financial house in order and balance the Federal budget and not grow this government.”