Alcee Hastings: “Mr. Speaker, this budget is a case study in poor leadership and fiscal management. It serves as an example of what goes…”

“Mr. Speaker, this budget is a case study in poor leadership and fiscal management. It serves as an example of what goes wrong when you fail to think ahead. Mr. Speaker, the general theme of this year's budget resolution is a reckless disregard for the obvious. After all, the resolution does not account for the last 5 years of last year's tax cut, and it certainly does not account for real CBO numbers. What the majority's figures do account for is a more than 5 percent cut in nondefense related spending and an additional $28 billion in tax cuts. They account for a 16 percent shortchanging of 'leave no child behind,' and they account for the elimination of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. The resolution also accounts for cuts in health care, law enforcement, energy production, environmental protection, not enough money for election reform, housing for the elderly, the capital fund for housing, homeless assistance cuts; and all the way across the board we find this. Basically, Mr. Speaker, what has happened is the lock box has been unlocked, thrown away, retooled, and made into an ATM machine.”