Wendy Sherman: “Today we enjoy the fruits of fiscal responsibility and an expanding economy. This budget resolution, thrown together at…”

“Today we enjoy the fruits of fiscal responsibility and an expanding economy. This budget resolution, thrown together at 3 in the morning in the dark of night in a secret room, this budget resolution puts all that at risk. Why? To support huge tax cuts that threaten to bust budget and endanger Social Security and Medicare. The only good thing that can be said about this resolution is that it is slightly less fiscally irresponsible than the plan put forward by Governor George Bush, to which Senator McCain responded that it represented fiscal irresponsibility. What kind of tax cuts are we asked to risk Social Security and Medicare for? We saw earlier this month, when the Republican tax bill provided three-quarters of the benefits to 1 percent of the richest Americans. Mr. Speaker, in his earlier speech, the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Kasich) invoked the sacred name of Regis Philbin. What game are we playing here? The Republicans are not playing the game who wants to be a millionaire or who wants to marry a multimillionaire. They have a new game, who wants to risk Social Security to give huge tax breaks to multi-multi-multimillionaires. Let us not play that game. Let us reject this rule and reject the Republican budget resolution and return to fiscal responsibility.”