Ben Cardin: “The budget speaks to priorities. The Republicans are not very subtle as to what their priority is all about. It is about…”

“The budget speaks to priorities. The Republicans are not very subtle as to what their priority is all about. It is about a tax cut. We know that this budget, their budget, says that that is their top priority. We do not have the details as to how it would specifically be organized, but all we have to do is look to last year and know that it will be an irresponsible tax cut, reckless and benefit the most wealthy. And we know that it jeopardizes the Social Security and Medicare and our ability to reduce our national debt. We could take a look at what Senator McCain said when he said it is fiscally irresponsible to promise a huge tax cut that is based on a surplus that we may not have. To bank it all on the unending surpluses at the possible risk of the Social Security trust fund is our fundamental disagreement. We could not agree more with Senator McCain. Now, we have an alternative. The Democratic alternative makes it clear that our priority is to protect Social Security, Medicare, and reduce our national debt, to have targeted tax relief to those who really need it, to make sure that we can continue our investments in education and the priorities that are important for our economic progress to continue.”