When many people think of the federal budget, they think of thick books filled with numbers and dense language. They think of bureaucrats and politicians arguing about percentages and big numbers—and it’s not always clear what it all really means for their families, their communities, and their jobs.

The truth is, while our budget process hasn’t always been as transparent and understandable as it ought to be, the policies that come out of it impact every single person in this country, every single day.

Budgets are about far more than just numbers on a page. They are about our values, our priorities, and our vision for what our government should look like now and in the future.

Through our federal budget, we lay out how much we, as a nation, value safe roads and bridges, affordable college education, programs like Medicare and Social Security, and our national security. We decide how much to invest in workers and students, our most vulnerable families, and the infrastructure, research and innovation that will lay down a strong foundation for long-term economic growth.

We determine how to pay for the government the people want, by addressing questions like whether middle class families should pay higher or lower income taxes, or whether we can afford to continue offering hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks to individuals and businesses who need them the least.

And our federal budget sets forth how we deal with our debt and deficit challenges in a way that works for the middle class, is good for the economy, and is fair for the next generation.

The Senate Budget Committee plays an important role in this process. And Chairman Patty Murray is focused on making sure that as Congress works to build on the two-year budget deal reached in December, it’s not just politicians and bureaucrats making these decisions, but that the ideas, stories, values, and priorities of families across the country have a platform to be heard and a voice at the table.