On the recordMarch 25, 2015
Let me thank the ranking member and my colleagues on the other side for the tremendous effort and work that they have put into this budget. Mr. Chair, of course, I am opposed to the Republican Study Committee budget. This is the committee adopted budget on steroids. The Republican Study Committee, to kind of outdo their Republican counterparts, balances this budget in 6 years instead of 10, and it cuts it by $7.1 trillion in just 6 years. I can tell you, while I am opposed to this budget, I have to commend the Republican Study Committee for putting it on the table here in a very transparent manner. Rather than raising the defense budget by $9 billion above the President's budget and putting all of those funds into the OCO account, at least they end the sequester and do it in a transparent, budgetary way. I commend them for that, but I do urge my colleagues to reject this budget. This budget raises taxes on the middle class. It divests in education for our students. It divests in infrastructure improvements for our roads, for our ports, for our bridges. There is much to be said for balancing a budget, but you not only can't do it on the backs of the poor, the elderly, the infirm, and children, but on the back of the economy. I am also on the Financial Services Committee, and we have been warned that growing inequality is not only bad for morale in our country, but it will destroy our economy in the long run.
