John Sarbanes: “I will talk about job creation for a moment, and to indicate any budget we deal with, which is the most important…”

“I will talk about job creation for a moment, and to indicate any budget we deal with, which is the most important Government document we act upon, contains thousands of decisions that are critical to our national life. Those decisions reflect important choices in terms of the priorities for our country. We have just been engaged in a discussion about tax breaks for the wealthiest among us. Are we more concerned with strengthening Social Security to make sure that people in retirement are adequately covered or making the necessary investments in education, transportation, and the environment? All of those decisions are involved in crafting the budget. In its composite, the budget is a very important macroeconomic document because it sets the fiscal path for dealing with the overall economy. We ask the question, Will the budget fund the programs, create jobs, and strengthen our economy? Will the budget have long-run structural deficits? What will be the impact of those deficits on our future economic performance? Will it move us toward full employment or away from it?”