Jon L. Christensen: “I have heard a lot of descriptions, Mr. Speaker, of the President's budget, but the word that keeps coming to my mind is…”

“I have heard a lot of descriptions, Mr. Speaker, of the President's budget, but the word that keeps coming to my mind is shameless. It is a budget of misplaced priorities that will only serve to widen the disparities that the Congressional Black Caucus and many other good Members of this and the other body have been working tirelessly to close, gaps that belie the values on which this country was founded and undermine our Nation's promise. First of all, the budget we have been sent is unfair. The burden of the deficit, the war and homeland security is thrust on the poor and the middle class, while the wealthy would reap the benefit of tax cuts, which further take us down the slippery slope of debt and deficit. It is based on more of the trickle-down economics that have never worked because the trickle always stops just short of those who need it most. Let us have some trickle-up economics for a change, so that there would be shared burden and shared benefits, if any. Further, the President's budget does nothing to reduce the deficit.”