John Spratt: “we have sat here for 3 or 4 years and watched tax cuts erode away the surplus and then, after the surplus was gone…”

“we have sat here for 3 or 4 years and watched tax cuts erode away the surplus and then, after the surplus was gone, watched tax cuts add to the budget deficit. We have asked ourselves where are we headed? What is the point of all of this? And we have suspected, long suspected, that the next step was to take us to the stage we are in now where we will hear increasingly, we just don't have the funds to meet our obligations for veterans' health care, we don't have the funds to fund education at the level we promised when we passed the Leave No Child Behind bill, and the pitch will be that all of this has been forced upon us by some outside events and we can't help it, we simply have to conform the budget to fiscal reality. Well, we do have a choice and this bill today shows us in one clear illustration what that choice is. We have a choice. It is not inevitable that we cut veterans' health care. It is not inevitable that we do not fully fund education or health care generally. We have a choice. We can move around, just a little bit, $18.9 billion and do a world of good. Where does the money come from? From those making over $1 million. How much do we take? $18.9 billion and still leave them a tax cut. And where does it go? $4.7 billion goes to deficit reduction. $14.2 billion goes to various selected needs. Let me give my colleagues just a few examples. Veterans' health care.…”