Angie Craig: “I thought it important that we end up the week with a bit of an analysis of where we are and where we have to get in the…”

“I thought it important that we end up the week with a bit of an analysis of where we are and where we have to get in the next several weeks to complete the business of Government, to fund the necessary agencies, and to be responsible to the American people as it relates to the expenditure of their tax dollars. As most all Americans understand, we are now, fortunately, living with a balanced budget at our Federal Government level; that is, current operating budgets. Many of us in Congress for decades fought to get this budget balanced. It became balanced during a period of unprecedented economic growth in our country. I believe that a balanced budget contributed dramatically to that growth. At the same time as we worked to continue to balance that budget, many of us had wanted to now take some of the unprecedented surpluses of tax dollars that are coming into us and return them to the American taxpayer.”