Budget

For years, the Republican Congress has taken us deeper and deeper into debt while slashing funding for important social programs. This year, the Democrats have put forward a budget which will address some of these problems. The House of Representatives passed the FY 2008 Budget Resolution (S.Con.Res. 21), which will contribute to balancing by the budget by 2012, as well as fix the Alternative Minimum Tax, and maintain the middle class tax cuts already in place. There are also provisions for $6.6 billion more funding for our veterans than was provided in 2007, representing the largest increase in funding for veterans in our Nation's history.

In addition, the Democratic FY 2008 Budget Resolution contains significant increases for health care funding, which includes a $50 billion reserve fund to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) as well as securing more funding for public health research.

The 2008 Budget Resolution also allocates $8 billion in additional funding for education and job training programs, including money to increase Pell Grants, improving No Child Left Behind, and funding Head Start. The Budget Resolution is guided by the strict-pay-as-you-go principle that the Democrats enacted at the start of this Congress, for which every additional dollar spent on programs in the budget has to be offset with other spending cuts or increased revenue.

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