John Yarmuth: “I thank my friend from Maryland for yielding. I like to read the comic strip in the paper every day, ``The Wizard of…”

“I thank my friend from Maryland for yielding. I like to read the comic strip in the paper every day, ``The Wizard of Id,'' and, to me, the budgets that we have seen coming out of the House and Senate are kind of like ``The Wizard of Id'' budgets. He cast a magic spell, he went ``poof,'' and all of a sudden we have created a balanced budget that is going to solve all this Nation's problems in the next 10 years. I don't think there are many gullible people out there who actually believe that will be the case. But we know some things for certain in this budget. We know that many, many important government investments are going to be cut beyond any reasonable limit, and to dangerous limits. We know, for instance, that within a matter of months, the highway trust fund is going to run out of money. We have $2 trillion worth of unmet infrastructure needs currently on the drawing board. These two budgets cut funding to make up some of that incredibly necessary infrastructure work. This budget slashes money for innovation, for research. The one greatest advantage this country has in the global economy is our innovative talent. This budget says we can wait for that. Not in this world that is moving 100 miles an hour. We can't wait for that. Every time we cut research we are setting back, again, our greatest advantage for years.…”