Scott Garrett: “New Jersey is proud to be number one in a number of things. But, quite honestly, we do not like to be proud, we are not…”

“New Jersey is proud to be number one in a number of things. But, quite honestly, we do not like to be proud, we are not proud of the fact that we are number one when it comes to paying taxes in this country, whether you are talking about local taxes, sales taxes, State income taxes, property taxes. I think we are just about number one in all of those combined. Yet when you take that and you add what is happening here, this could be one of the most expensive weeks for the citizens of the State of New Jersey if this House proceeds with what the Democrat leadership plans to do. Now, I have the privilege of serving with you, the gentleman from California, on the Budget Committee. And as you know, we just debated, if you will, the Democrats' budget proposal just last week. Actually, we had a number of hearings over the last 3 months now, during which time we have had a number of experts come and testify on various aspects of the Federal budget and the ramifications of not doing some things in the area of mandatory spending. When you think about all the rhetoric that we have heard from the other side of the aisle, and maybe it was disquieting at some times, I think the one thing that maybe we can reach across the aisle here and maybe hear one language, one word that we are on the same page on at least, in rhetoric at least, is they agree with us on this one point and that is that we should get to a balanced budget at some point.”