Eva M. Clayton: “Some of us, including myself, take the budget process seriously; and we also take the budget as an important document.…”

“Some of us, including myself, take the budget process seriously; and we also take the budget as an important document. We consider the Federal budget an important document because it is the document that we use to speak to the needs and the priorities of the American people, whether that is defense, education, Social Security, environment, agriculture, any of these. Also it is an important document because it says where we are getting the resources from, whether it be taxes, will it be trust funds like the Social Security trust fund, or what programs will we reduce. Indeed, it is an important document that when we have a surplus, we should use it to pay down the debt. In all of these areas, we indeed do not take the process seriously; but we say that the budget indeed is an important document. I say we ought to reject this budget. We can do much better for the American people. We can say we are serious, and the budget itself is an important document.”