Eva M. Clayton: “as we discuss our budget, we are really discussing the priorities that the American people have for the utilization of…”

“as we discuss our budget, we are really discussing the priorities that the American people have for the utilization of its resources. And certainly any budget discussion should include a variety of alternatives. Indeed, the majority denied one alternative which perhaps could have met in a consensus of the Members of this House on both sides. It might not have been the one that I wanted, but still we needed a full discussion of it. I also rise to say that the proposal that we have here in terms of the Kasich bill denies the bipartisan approach that we had when we had the balanced budget agreement of last year. This violates the principles of it. It violates the undergirding caps of it. It has a black hole. We do not even know how indeed we are going to finance the resources for paying for the transportation bill, which is the bill of authority. And we know there ought to be a fire wall between the trust fund and this bill. It has many inconsistencies that one would think one who would want to be prudent in the spending and caring for priorities would address. For that reason, I urge that we reject this rule, because it is not only unfair but it is the wrong way to discuss the priorities which will utilize the resources of the American people, and it certainly is unfair for us now to undo what we did last year where we had a balanced budget that indeed was crafted with a bipartisan approach. I urge a ``no'' on this vote.”