David Price: “Mr. Chairman, this afternoon we talked about the Republican majority's budget resolution and some of the risks that it…”

“Mr. Chairman, this afternoon we talked about the Republican majority's budget resolution and some of the risks that it would pose. Their $200 billion tax cut in the first 5 years would take us into the red by 2004. Well, if you are worried about that risky venture, just look at this CATs budget. It proposes a $270 billion tax cut in the first 5 years. Still not as much, I must say, as George W. Bush's proposed tax cut, which our Republican friends refused to vote on, but still $270 billion in the first 5 years, enough to eat up the entire non-Social Security surplus and to require renewed borrowing from the Social Security surplus. So the proposed tax cut is reckless. It bets the store on doubtful projections, which I think are simply not risks that our country ought to take. Secondly, we talked this afternoon about the unrealistic assumptions about our domestic obligations and how the Republican budget assumes devastating and unrealistic declines in domestic investments, in education, in law enforcement, across the board. Well, if you are worried about that set of cuts, look at this CATs budget. It goes even deeper. In fact, $16.5 billion deeper in 2001 alone. I invite my colleagues to contrast the Democratic budget substitute, which is reasonable, which is balanced. It will provide a targeted, affordable tax cut. But it will also extend the solvency of both the Medicare and the Social Security trust funds.”