(Washington D.C.)- U.S. Rep. Sander Levin (D-Royal Oak), a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, today made the following floor statement in opposition to the Republican budget resolution, and in support of the budget alternative offered by Representative John Spratt of South Carolina. 

Mr. Levin's remarks are below:

I rise in opposition to the Majority's budget. 

We need to acknowledge that there is something fundamentally wrong with the budgetary policies the Republican Leadership has pursued for the last five years.  It is time for a little honesty about where these policies are taking this country.  Since 2001, the federal government has posted record budget deficits year after year.

During the 1990s, Democrats and Republicans worked together with the Clinton Administration to cut the red ink and balance the budget.  For the first time in many years, we balanced the budget in 1998.  We kept it balanced in 1999, 2000 and 2001.  Indeed, we ran budget surpluses during those years and, for the first time in a generation, actually began to pay down the national debt. 

Since the Bush Administration took office in 2001, we've swung from balanced budgets to massive annual budget deficits.  In 2002 -- the year after the Congress adopted the Administration's tax policies --  the federal government posted a $128 billion deficit.  In 2003, the deficit rose to $378 billion.  In 2004, the deficit soared to an all-time high of $412 billion.  In 2005, the deficit was $318 billion.

As bad as these deficits are, they do not tell the whole story, since these figures do not include the money the federal government borrows from Social Security and Medicare trust funds each year.  In 2005 alone, the federal government borrowed nearly $175 billion from the trust funds, and we?re on course to borrow even more this year. 

We cannot continue on the course we're on.  It is wrong for this Congress and this President to keep borrowing half a trillion dollars each and every year and then pass this debt along to our children.  It is wrong for Congress and the President to keep borrowing more and more from foreigners to fund tax cuts for the very wealthy.  China alone owns more than $818 billion of our debt. 

The Majority's budget simply digs the deficit hole deeper.  The Republican budget proposes a $348 billion deficit for 2007.  If you add in the borrowing from Social Security and Medicare ? money that, by law, must be repaid -- the total deficit for 2007 soars to $543 billion.  The hard truth is that under the Majority's budget, the federal budget never comes into balance.  The tide of red ink rises forever.  This policy is unsustainable and morally indefensible. 

Tucked away in this budget is a provision to raise the government's borrowing limit another $653 billion.  This would be on top of the $3 trillion in debt limit increases already approved since President Bush took office.  At the very least, there should be a straight up-or-down vote on a debt limit of this magnitude, but evidently the plan is to try to sneak this through. 

The Majority's budget also contains irresponsible cuts in critical domestic programs.  In this regard, the Majority has mirrored the Bush Administration's budget, which included deep cuts in education, critical medical research, environmental protection, veterans' health care, to name only a few areas.  There has been an attempt tonight to place a fig leaf over some of these cuts with a vague half promise of perhaps adding an additional $7.1 billion for domestic programs later.  All this fig leaf does is acknowledge that the funding shortfall exists in the Republican budget without taking any action to actually address it. 

I will vote for the Democratic budget substitute offered by Representative Spratt.  The Spratt budget pays down the deficits over the next five years and achieves balance in 2012.  We restore fiscal discipline by bringing back the pay-as-you-go budgeting rules and we force a degree of accountability by requiring the House to take a separate up-or-down vote on measures to increase the national debt limit.  In addition, the Democratic budget alternative provides $150 billion for future tax cuts, and requires that any further tax cuts meet the pay-as-you-go rules.  Lastly, our budget alternative rejects yet another round of spending cuts to key domestic programs that have been cut repeatedly in recent years. 

The choice before the House could not be more clear.  We can vote to continue the failed economic policies of the last five years -- policies that have resulted in massive annual deficits.  Or we can say $3 trillion of debt and borrowing over 5 years is enough and vote for the Spratt budget alternative that pays down these deficits and balances the budget. 

I urge all my colleagues to join me in voting for Representative Spratt's budget.
 

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