John Spratt: “Mr. Speaker, on March 13, we passed the budget resolution. It's a good resolution. It moves the budget to balance by the…”

“Mr. Speaker, on March 13, we passed the budget resolution. It's a good resolution. It moves the budget to balance by the Year 2012 and, along the way, it accumulates less debt than the Bush budget. It limits spending to a reasonable level. But I can truthfully say that this bill does more for education, more for the environment, more for energy, more for science and innovation than the President's budget or the Republicans' resolution. And also, critically important, it avoids the deep cuts in Medicare and Medicaid that are provided for, called for in the President's budget. And it protects the middle income tax cuts; provides AMT relief for middle income families for whom it was never intended. Therefore, we have the outline of a good budget for the coming fiscal year, and we need to pass it, send it to conference, bring the conference report back. We have an excellent chance, I think, of passing the first conference report, back to back, since the year 2000. What my friends on the other side of the aisle have introduced is, to my way of thinking, a distraction, a red herring.”