Jim Nussle: “Mr. Chairman, first, as I did when I opened, I do very much respect the job that has been done by the Congressional…”

“Mr. Chairman, first, as I did when I opened, I do very much respect the job that has been done by the Congressional Black Caucus in presenting a budget. It is very difficult to do that. I know that just because I have the responsibility of putting together the majority budget, and it is not an easy task. And so I appreciate the job that was done. We simply disagree, and we do so very respectfully. The title of the budget is ``Investing in America,'' and we just happen to believe that the best investors in America are Americans, not the government. We believe that individuals and families make much better decisions about spending their money than the government can for them. And so the reason why we believe that increasing taxes would be wrong or increasing spending at this time and the dramatic way that you go about that in your budget would just not be the right recipe at this time or the right blueprint as we move forward. A couple of things that I just want to point out to my colleagues who are coming over and getting ready to vote. The first is that the substitute offered by the Congressional Black Caucus raises taxes. It raises $35 billion of taxes in 2005 alone and $192 billion over 5 years. And the way that it raises taxes is on small business; and that is, in my estimation, the wrong recipe at the wrong time when our economy is just poised to begin job creation.”