John Spratt: “Mr. Speaker, the budget that the Republicans brought to the House late last Thursday has more than just two pages…”

“Mr. Speaker, the budget that the Republicans brought to the House late last Thursday has more than just two pages missing. It is a budget full of plugs and placeholders, and what is really missing are real numbers. Take defense, the largest account in the discretionary budget. This budget allocates $325 billion to defense, basically what Clinton and Cohen would have spent. But $325 billion is not a real number. It is a placeholder, pending Mr. Rumsfeld's review of what is needed to transform our military. Reports indicate when the time is right, after the tax cuts are enacted, Mr. Rumsfeld will request at least $25 billion a year more than this budget provides. Take next the rest of all appropriated spending. This budget holds discretionary spending to an increase of 3.8 percent next year and in years thereafter to 2.6 percent below inflation. This is tight, really tight, a lot stricter than any limit to which spending has been held in recent years. If spending is capped at these levels, and a few favored programs such as NIH and transportation get outsized disproportionate increases, then many others will have to be cut.”