John Tierney: “I rise today in salute to America's troops and veterans, and urge my colleagues to honor their sacrifices not with lofty…”

“I rise today in salute to America's troops and veterans, and urge my colleagues to honor their sacrifices not with lofty political rhetoric but with concrete budgetary reality. Sadly, we are denied that opportunity today. Instead, after waiting weeks for a budget and voting primarily on uncontested matters, receiving only this week a proposed budget that: Fails to appropriately address the sad state of our economy; Fails to propose policies that will create an environment for the maintenance and creation of jobs; Fails to clearly fund ongoing expenses related to the continuing military efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq and fails to adequately fund force protective measures as well as first responder needs for homeland security; Fails to fund the President's own promises with respect to education mandates on local communities; Fails to even begin to deal with the nation's health care crisis; Proposes pilfering the Social Security surplus; and Forces enormous further debt burden on every one of our children. This Republican House leadership--I believe in cooperation with the White House--now proposes to politicize foreign policy for their own domestic political purposes. It's a disgrace!”