Wayne Allard: “I emphasize that we are moving forward. We just finished a recession. The attack on America and the war on terror have…”

“I emphasize that we are moving forward. We just finished a recession. The attack on America and the war on terror have created some unacceptable budget deficits and we are trying to deal with these in the budget. Since 2001, spending increases and the economy, not tax cuts, have been the biggest contributors to the deficits. The President's economic policies are working. The gross domestic product growth is up, unemployment is down, and the combined value of the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ have increased 40 percent. We are moving forward. We can reduce deficits by slowing spending and preventing economically damaging tax increases. I will go over just a few things that our budget will do. In 3 years, by 2007, it is going to cut the deficit in half and continue bringing deficits down. It is going to slow the growth of discretionary spending. We are eliminating wasteful mandatory spending. We are attempting to prevent tax increases on families. We are trying to maintain some spending discipline. We are trying to show that as Republicans, we can lead, and that Senator Nickles from Oklahoma is willing to take and make the tough decisions necessary to eliminate our deficits under this budget.”