Mike Conaway: “we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the 2008 budget that the Democrats are putting together. In all likelihood, it…”

“we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the 2008 budget that the Democrats are putting together. In all likelihood, it will require a spending of $2.9 trillion. Let me put that money in perspective. That is $90,000 plus every second of the fiscal year. It is a lot of money. Tax rates will be going up under current law unless this Congress acts to not do that. There is a myth being purported by the other side that we can somehow tax the rich and balance the budget. That is a myth. The top 10 percent of taxpayers already pay two-thirds of the taxes that are being paid in this country. Spending restraint is far more impactful on balancing the budget than raising taxes. We have a spending problem, not a tax-raising problem. I urge my colleagues to work on spending restraint as the true measure of how we fix this deficit.”