Russ Feingold: “this resolution is the latest in a string of budgets that continue to set records for fiscal recklessness. The test of…”

“this resolution is the latest in a string of budgets that continue to set records for fiscal recklessness. The test of any budget is the bottom line, and any civics teacher looking at the bottom line would have to give this budget an ``F.'' It continues to drive us deeper into the deficit ditch, with little hope that we will ever climb out of it, and it is just as revealing for what it does not include as for what it does. This budget fails to include a single penny for the President's most important domestic priority, his plan to privatize Social Security. While I strongly oppose such a plan, if the President and congressional leadership are serious about pushing their plan to privatize Social Security, the very least they can do is pay for it. This budget fails to provide for long-term reform of the alternative minimum tax, something on which there is widespread, bipartisan agreement. But here again, instead of ensuring that this clear priority can move ahead, this budget remains silent. And perhaps most importantly, this budget fails to restore the common sense pay-go budget rule that helped restrain our collective fiscal appetites, and made us pay for what we wanted to do. That is such a simple, straightforward proposition pay for what you want. It's what every family has to do. It's how the Clinton-Gore administration and Congress finally balanced the Federal books during the 1990s. We are already in a deep budget hole.…”