Washington, D.C. -  Answering Questions

Today, US Rep. David Price (NC-04) will vote against the House Republican budget, which slashes funding for North Carolina programs while continuing to create record deficits with its large tax breaks to the wealthiest 1% of Americans.

Price will instead support a fiscally responsible Democratic alternative, which maintains support for the critical programs and initiatives that Triangle families rely on.

Below are the remarks Price made on the House floor last evening during debate of the budget resolution.

“Mr. Speaker, colleagues will remember the biblical story of the prophet Nathan coming to the mighty King David. Nathan told David a story about a rich man who had many sheep but who took the one little ewe lamb of a poor man to feed a visiting friend. David flew into a rage at the rich man and proclaimed that anyone who would do such a thing deserved to be put to death for abusing his power and showing so little compassion. And Nathan said to David, ‘YOU are that man.’

“This story should lead us to look into the mirror: are we in danger of becoming ‘that man?’ The Republican budget removes support for housing, education, Medicaid, community development, and small business lending. It raises taxes on the poor. And it does all this so the Republicans can afford new tax cuts for the wealthiest among us. If there was ever a moral issue before this Congress, it is that one.

“One might expect that these cuts would at least result in significant decreases in the deficits. But this is not the case. We continue to face a ‘worst of both worlds’ scenario, in which we suffer both devastating cuts and dangerous increases in the deficit. We continue to borrow from our children to pay for tax cuts, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the president’s Social Security privatization.

“As Members of Congress, we have a responsibility to be good stewards of the resources of our government and not simply look to our immediate desires but also to the needs of our children and our children’s children, including their need to be free of a crippling debt.

“Republicans claim to be the party of moral values, but their budget belies their claim. The Democratic alternative maintains current funding levels for our county’s critical domestic and security programs while also providing meaningful tax relief for middle class Americans. Furthermore, the Democratic budget recognizes that fiscal responsibility is also a moral value by reinstating a real pay-as-you-go rule and by balancing our budget within seven years. The Republican budget, on the other hand, continues to run up record deficits for as far as the eye can see.

“Mr. Speaker, the budget process provides each party with a chance to put its money where its mouth is and to act on the rhetoric we hear all year long. A budget is a statement of moral priorities. I hope and pray that we will do justice to those imperatives in the votes we cast today.”