Sylvester Turner: “I really do hope, however, that we will all at least come to the point where we will agree as a House, as a legislative…”

“I really do hope, however, that we will all at least come to the point where we will agree as a House, as a legislative body, that the budget act that we are governed by, requiring a concurrent budget resolution before we have tax cuts or enact appropriations for spending will be the pattern that this Congress will follow. Unfortunately, the leadership in this House has chosen to do it another way, because tomorrow they will bring to this floor a major tax cut before this House has adopted a budget. The Blue Dogs intend tomorrow to be heard on that subject because we think it is important to have a budget first. It is also true, as the gentleman from Colorado stated, that the President, in his budget plan, does reduce national debt. Our objection simply is that it does not reduce national debt as fast as we think it should be reduced. In fact, in an editorial in USA Today, the writer of that editorial acknowledged that the President is reducing debt, but he says that anyone looking closely at the President's budget will see that he does not retire debt as fast as current law would provide. And, in fact, the President's debt repayment schedule under his rough outline of a budget will reduce less debt than current law to the tune of $590 billion over the next 5 years. The Blue Dog budget plan reduces the debt at a faster rate than the President's budget does.”