Timothy Roemer: “I appreciate the gentleman directing his events across the aisle in a bipartisan way because I intend to vote for this…”

“I appreciate the gentleman directing his events across the aisle in a bipartisan way because I intend to vote for this reconciliation package. I would say that it is not only important to work in a bipartisan way to balance the budget, but this is a defining vote for the Democratic Party. It is a vote that, while working with our Democratic President and the majority Republican Party who control the House and the Senate, we have been able to save over $700 billion that we will not have to borrow over the next 10 years, and at the same time that many of us Democrats believe in balancing the budget, we believe in doing it in a fair, equitable and just manner. Spending money on a brand-new initiative for children's health, $16 billion over 5 years for uninsured children; that would not have happened without our input into this process. The largest Pell grant increase in the history of the Pell grant program to help our struggling families get their children a college education; that would not have happened without the President and the Democratic minorities in the Senate and the House working with the Republican majority.”