David Price: “Absolutely. The gentleman is correct. A year ago we were debating Republican and Democratic budget alternatives. The…”

“Absolutely. The gentleman is correct. A year ago we were debating Republican and Democratic budget alternatives. The Republican alternative left no margin for error. It basically said let us take the surplus and spend it on a tax cut and let us risk going into the Social Security surplus. The Democratic plan was far more balanced. We also proposed a tax cut, a tax cut that was aimed at estate tax relief, aimed at putting money in families' pockets who most needed it. That was a proposal that I think could have gotten widespread support. But our Republican friends insisted on going way beyond that. We also had built in a disciplined, systematic program of debt reduction, of buying down the national debt. We also provided for some needed investments in defense, in prescription drug coverage under Medicare, and other pressing national priorities. Most of the American people, I think, agreed that this was a more balanced approach and one that left a greater margin for error in case the economy did not perform as we hoped. Now we know in reprospect that our plan would have been far superior and would have avoided this fiscal turnaround that we have now seen.”