Marcy Kaptur: “I would like to deeply thank, Mr. Chairman, the chairman of our Budget Committee, the very able and distinguished…”

“I would like to deeply thank, Mr. Chairman, the chairman of our Budget Committee, the very able and distinguished gentleman from South Carolina, John Spratt, who has led our committee to produce a budget that will balance in the next 5 years with no tax increase. It is going to take pay-as-you-go and it is going to take a real regimen to correct America's net negative savings rate. Certainly, the Bush administration has done much damage in the last 6 years by making a mess of fiscal policy, just as it has made a mess of foreign policy; and now we have got these overhanging budget deficits and trade deficits. For, in fact, in 2001, the administration inherited a projected 10-year surplus of nearly $6 trillion; and within 2 years alone the surplus had been eliminated and we began piling up debt, adding $2.8 trillion over 6 years, much of it purchased by foreign investors, which I will talk about here in just a second. I want to thank Chairman Spratt for doing what is right for America.”