Todd Rokita: “I would like to thank Chairman Price for his extraordinary leadership throughout this entire process. And I want to…”

“I would like to thank Chairman Price for his extraordinary leadership throughout this entire process. And I want to thank my fellow conferees for their hard work, many hours over many days, to get us to where we are today and, of course, my fellow Budget Committee members, both Republican and Democrat, for the robust discussion, debate, spirit, as it was sometimes. The process worked. We did go late into the night a few times. But we came out of those late nights, those long hours, with the product here today. The product here today, unfortunately, is a more rare product than it should be. Mr. Speaker, for the first time since 2001, 14 years, we have a balanced joint budget resolution, bicameral. As a relatively new person to this Chamber, in my fifth year, and you think about why that is the case, you, unfortunately, in my opinion, have to conclude it is because most of the time we are talking about the demagoguery, like some of which we just heard, half the story, so to speak, about what is really going on here. If we had full discussions about where this country really needs to go, where this Federal Government needs to go in terms of improving its debt and deficit picture, the whole budget picture, you would really see that the economy in this country could be better off with those honest, full discussions. This budget, for example, does balance in less than 10 years without raising taxes--without raising taxes.…”