Supporting the goals of World Intellectual Property Day, and recognizing the importance of intellectual property in the United States and worldwide.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 248, I call up the conference report on the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 95) establishing the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2006, revising appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal year 2005, and setting forth appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2007 through 2010.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 9 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, before I begin with the opening, let me just thank our staff. We have to make a lot of decisions around here, and we put together the policy and make the votes, but the staff makes it all come together in the document that we review today, as well as the work of the Committee on the Budget. I thank Jim Bates who is the majority staff director, who has done an excellent job this year, and Tom Kahn on the minority side who has done an excellent job. Both their staffs do a great job on behalf of the budget, the Senate staff in putting this together working with Chairman Gregg and the Senate Budget Committee, and our leadership staff that is here that works the floor and helps us put this all together. They do an excellent job. It is a big job putting together a budget.

But if there was ever a time that we needed a plan and we need a budget, this is the time. We have seen what it is like in years past when we do not have budgets, when we are not able to come together. And yes, the House has been able to manage the process. We have been able to keep the line on discretionary spending, but we need to do more this year. We need a fiscal blueprint. We have enormous and quickly growing sets of challenges, and we do not have infinite resources with which to meet them. We can and will meet those challenges with a fiscal blueprint, with a budget.

But in order to do that, we have to make some tough choices. We cannot say yes to everything. There is going to be a lot of debate today where Members say you did not say yes to this, you did not say yes to that, you did not give enough here, you did not give enough there, or you gave too much over here. That is the whole budget in a nutshell, is that no one is going to be perfectly satisfied with either how much you spend on one side or how much or how little you take from the other side of the ledger. No one will be satisfied, but it needs to be put in writing. It needs to be a fence around our process. We need a plan.

I am extremely pleased that we have brought our plan and our conference report here today. It was not easy to get to this position. I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert); the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), the majority leader; the members of my committee; the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Ryan), a member of the conference. I thank the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt), my friend and colleague. He will remind us that he was not a party to this conference in the way that either one of us would have liked, but I would like to thank his partnership and the way we run the committee.

Mr. Speaker, we have work to do, and I believe it can continue in a very positive way today if we pass this resolution.

Last year we were able to reduce the deficit 20 percent. We need to continue that work. We need to continue the strength of this country. We need to continue the growth of our economy. We need to continue the restraint of spending for deficit reduction. These are our highest national priorities, and if these priorities are not met, none of the rest of the priorities will be met.

All of the programs, all of the areas of government, none of them can happen if our economy is not strong, if our Nation is not strong, if our freedom is not protected, and if we do not have a fiscal blueprint to surround us. These are our fiscal priorities as we move forward.

Let me talk about the conference report that we are bringing today. First, the budget fully accommodates the President's request for defense and homeland security. That is our number one job. None of the rest of the discussion matters if we do not protect the country. In addition, it provides for $50 billion in emergency supplementals looking forward, recognizing that we have a continuing obligation in our global war on terror.

Second, the budget continues our successful economic policies, including

tax relief, spending restraint, and deficit reduction to ensure a strong, sustained economic growth and job creation dynamic. This is why we are doing it, so that people can continue to find the opportunities to earn the money to take care of themselves and their families and their communities first before the IRS and the Federal Government takes a portion of that out here for the national priorities. People have an obligation to manage their affairs first, and we allow that here.

Finally, the budget takes a critical, I think, next step, because we made the first step last year in reducing the unsustainable rate of Federal spending and our deficit. We take the next step this year to reduce that deficit.

Last year we wrote and passed in this House and actually stuck to a budget that for the first time in a long time called for a little restraint in our discretionary spending. When the books were closed at the end of the year, we saw the deficit go down. The deficit went down. In fact, the reduction of the deficit last year alone was 20 percent, still way too high, a deficit still way too high by my count, by the count of my colleagues, by the President, and by the other body. But during a war, during a time of new national priorities such as homeland security, it is not unusual that we made a determination to borrow some money in the short term to shore that up.

But we also have to continue the work that we started last year on reducing that deficit.

This year this budget takes the necessary steps to get our spending back on a sustainable path and to continue to reduce that deficit. On the discretionary side, this budget will actually reduce the overall amount of nonsecurity discretionary spending. The nondefense discretionary spending will actually be reduced, something we have not seen done on this floor or in this government since Ronald Reagan was in town, the last time that we had an actual reduction in the nondefense discretionary.

But more important than that, this budget begins the process of addressing the growth in the automatic spending, what we call mandatory spending, the spending that continues year after year unless we reform the programs that underlie that spending. And this year this is a reform budget. This is a budget that allows us to continue on the path that we need to head. Mandatory spending is growing out of control. We know it, Governors know it, the President knows it, the other body knows it, our committees know it. What we have not had is the mechanism to do something about it.

Let me show how mandatory spending is growing. If we look at this chart, we will see that back in 1995, the automatic spending was almost half of the budget. Now it is over half, about 55 percent of the budget. And if we do nothing, it will eventually take two thirds of the budget by 2015 alone, meaning mandatory spending will crowd out things like national defense, homeland security, education, transportation, the environment, health care. A number of important issues that we need to be focusing on will be enveloped by the mandatory spending side of the ledger without reform. And these programs in many instances are plainly not working.

I think of a senior citizen sitting in a hallway of a nursing home in Iowa and wondering whether or not that senior is getting the best quality care for the huge increases and the unsustainable growth that we find in Medicaid. And I do not see that being the case. Is the quality there? Is the program being delivered in the best possible way? And for that one instance and thousands of others that are out there we need to focus programs on doing a better job for the money that is put forth in order to meet the needs of some of our most vulnerable citizens; children who are poor, people with disabilities, seniors who are either locked in poverty or unable to meet their needs. We have got to handle the mandatory growth in this budget and do so in a way that provides the reform to make sure that the needs of the people that these programs were intended to meet, that those needs are met. And that is the reason that we bring this budget forth.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton), the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, which has jurisdiction over the Medicaid program.

(Mr. BARTON of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Ryun), a conferee and a member of the Committee on the Budget.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), our distinguished majority leader.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished majority whip, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt).

Mr. Speaker, we stand for growing the economy; and to speak about that, let me yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Crenshaw), a member of the committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Putnam), a member of the committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker) and a member of the committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence).

(Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Buyer), the distinguished chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds to just point out, because there has been some question, so let us get the facts. The budget calls for veterans increases; fiscal year 2005 will be $30 billion; fiscal year 2006, $31.8 billion. It is an increase of almost a billion dollars, or a 3.2 percent increase. That is an increase. So there may be some other facts on the floor, but let us look at the facts in the budget.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds. This is veterans medical care before and after 1995, and that is what we are going to increase that beyond. I can understand when you want to put, you know, some kind of magical inflation number that you have just pulled out of the air and then make up a number. That is a different issue.

The budget has an increase for veterans. They deserve it, and that is what we are going to pass.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Deal).

Mr. Speaker, how much time remains?

Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Mrs. Wilson), a real leader on our side when it comes to Medicaid reform.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 5 minutes and 15 seconds.

Mr. Speaker, basically, the budget before us is the President's budget sent to us a couple of months ago, subject to a few puts and takes. Unfortunately, neither the President nor the Republicans in the House nor the Republicans in the Senate have done what was done for years in good budget practice, and that is run their numbers out for 10 years. They simply give us a 5-year display of their numbers and that conveniently avoids showing the effect, the enormous effect, on the budget of having the renewal of the tax cuts after the year 2010.

But if Members want to see basically where this budget will take us, they can look in CBO's analysis done in the early part of March required by law of the President's budget because it basically is the same as the President's budget. They do not have to read past Page 2 in this analysis of the President's budget. And when they do, they will see that if we follow the path that the President is proposing, we will add $5.135 trillion to the national debt to the United States between now and 2015, over the next 10 years.

But that calculation does not include anything for fixing the AMT, which CBO tells us will cost $642 billion in revenues; and it includes nothing for deployment of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan after 2005, which CBO calculates at $384 billion; and it includes nothing for partial privatization of Social Security even though the President estimates it will cost $774 billion.

When we add all of those things in and calculate their effect on the budget, here is what happens. I have sat here for the last hour, heard Member after Member on the other side saying we have got a budget that will cut the deficit in half over the next 5 years. Here is what happens: take it from CBO, make these two or three noncontroversial adjustments to their number, and see what happens. The deficit never gets below $362 billion. At the end of the time frame, it is $621 billion, $7 trillion of additional debt. That is where we are headed. That is where this train will take us if we adopt this budget resolution today.

Do the Members believe me?

Let me show which side should be regarded as credible. Let us just look back at the recent past. When Bill Clinton came to office, the deficit was $290 billion. Awaiting him was the biggest deficit in our Nation's peacetime history. We passed the Clinton budget, and every year thereafter the bottom line of the budget got better for 8 straight years until in the year 2000 we had a surplus, 5 years ago, of $236 billion. Every year since, the bottom line of the budget has gotten worse.

And I have got a much simpler, more emphatic way to describe the effects of it. This chart right here shows us how much we have had to raise the statutory ceiling on the permissible amount of debt that the United States can incur, the debt ceiling, over the first Bush administration. And guess what. In this budget resolution too. Over the first Bush administration, in 4 years there were three increases in the debt ceiling that totaled $2.234 trillion. It is a matter of record. That is where the budget took us over the last 4 years. And this budget, vote for this budget resolution and buried in it is a provision which will increase the debt ceiling of the United States by another $781 billion. Members are voting for that if they vote for this resolution tonight, a total over 5 years of $3.015 trillion increase in the national debt of the United States. Incredible.

But as I said, that is not all. Read chart two, Page 2 in the CBO report, and they will see it goes on and on and on. We stack debt on top of debt.

I have heard people come out here and say we are flush with revenues in the aftermath of these tax cuts, we have had a rejuvenation of revenues. Here is the truth if Members want a very simple back-of-the- envelope form: this is where the Bush administration told us we would be if we passed their tax cuts. We would have, in the year 2004, $1.118 trillion in individual income taxes. And here is what the actual take was last year: $811 billion. That $300 billion shortfall in revenues accounts for three-fourths of the $412 billion deficit last year.

People may ask, and I think it is fair for all of us to ask, how do we run a

$427 billion deficit and still have room for additional tax cuts which the Republicans are pushing in this budget resolution, another $106 billion of tax cuts pushed in this budget resolution? There is one short answer, a simple step: when we do not have the income taxes because we cut these taxes, we go to the Social Security trust fund, and there is a surplus there of $160 billion. We reach into the surplus not this year but next year and every year for 10 years to come as far as the horizon can see, and this is what happens: every year this budget resolution will result in the consumption of the Social Security surplus. With the problems we have got in Social Security, surely we should have one rule until we finally find the grand solution, that is, do no harm. This bill does harm year after year after year because it raids the Social Security trust fund.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez), the distinguished chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the distinguished whip.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the distinguished minority leader of the House.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute and 15 seconds to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Davis).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds to respond to the gentleman.

This chart clearly shows, Mr. Speaker, where the increases in spending have come. They have been supported by the Bush administration and supported by both sides of the aisle because they have gone to national defense, homeland defense, and response to 9/11. Ninety to 95 percent of the spending increases in the discretionary accounts over and above current services have gone to these programs in these 4 fiscal years. You supported it, the President sought it, and we have done it because we had to do it.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel).

Mr. Speaker, I yield a minute to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards).

Mr. Speaker, before yielding to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps), I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) to respond to the last speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I yield a minute to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps).

(Mrs. CAPPS asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, before yielding to the ranking member of the Committee on Agriculture, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) to respond.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 15 seconds to myself.

Mr. Speaker, the numbers that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) was citing come from a document that we have prepared that compares the conference report with the Congressional Budget Office's current services baseline. And by that comparison, this conference report falls $13.504 billion below current services over the next 5 years.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Peterson), the ranking Democrat on the Committee on Agriculture.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/4\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Schwartz).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott).

(Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/4\ minutes to the gentlewoman from South Dakota (Ms. Herseth).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee).

(Mr. INSLEE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, this is not a budget that follows the will of the House. That is the first problem with it.

The will was expressed 2 days ago. Two days ago, 348 Members voted emphatically against any Medicaid cuts. The conferees disdained that instruction and whacked $10 billion out of Medicaid.

This is a budget that does contain spending cuts, but in this budget the spending cuts do not go to the bottom line and reduce the deficit dollar for dollar. Basically, what they do is offset partially the tax cuts that are also called for. Consequently, this budget is not a budget that will bring the deficit into balance. We have a deficit of $427 billion this year.

I said earlier, do not take it from me. Take it from CBO. Read their analysis of the President's budget. This is basically the President's budget with some puts and takes. They project that over the next 10 years, if you follow that budget, we will incur $5.130 trillion.

This budget resolution, if Members vote for it, includes an increase in the statutory debt ceiling of almost $800 billion. That is the course we are on, stacking debt on top of debt.

Now, one would think with all the problems we have got we would do something about the deficit in this budget, but this budget does not make the deficit better. It adds $167 billion to the CBO baseline deficit over the next 5 years and worse in the second 5 years. We are just kicking the can down the road, and this budget very conveniently avoids the huge mountains just over the crest of the horizon.

So if you want to vote for a balanced budget, vote down this budget resolution. If you want to vote against accumulating debt on debt and leaving our children with mountains of debt, vote against this budget resolution. Send the budget conferees back to work with something that is respectable and deserving of our vote.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today being very disturbed with the direction that the Republican Party and this administration is taking our great Nation. The reason for my concern is the Budget Conference Report which stands before this body today. Sadly, this body has just now received a copy of the Budget Conference Report. It's truly tragic to think that this piece of legislation actually affects every single American and yet here we are in the `people's house' and there is no real deliberation on this monumental bill. The Budget Conference Report clearly does not improve upon the severely flawed Republican budget, which barely passed in the House a little more than a month ago. The needs of average Americans are still ignored. The interests of a wealthy few outweigh the needs of an entire Nation in this budget. I say this not out of partisanship, but from a statement of the facts. I want to highlight a few areas in this Budget Conference Report that are particularly egregious.

This President and the majority party in this body have spent so much time talking about their record on education and as hard as I try I can not see what they have to be proud of. It is one thing to address areas of critical need with rhetoric, but to advocate a policy and then not fund it sufficiently is plain irresponsible. This Budget Conference Report eliminates 48 education programs that receive $4.3 billion this year. These eliminations include wiping out $1.3 billion for all vocational education programs, $522 million for all education technology programs, and $29 million for all civic education programs. The budget eliminates other large programs including the Even Start family literacy program ($225 million) and State grants for safe and drug-free schools and communities ($437 million). The President's budget cuts 2006 funding for the Department of Education by $1.3 billion below the amount needed to maintain purchasing power at the current level, and by $530 million below the 2005 enacted level of $56.6 billion. This is the first time since 1989 that an administration has submitted a budget that cuts the Department's funding. This administration and the majority in this Congress promised to leave no child behind, but clearly they have reneged on their promise.

Our brave American veterans are another group who were outraged by the President's budget and will unfortunately be disappointed with the Budget Conference Report. I hear so much in this body from the majority party about the greatness of our Armed Forces, and their rights, but again it's just empty rhetoric on their part. Those brave men and women fighting on the front lines in our War Against Terror will come back home and find that the Republican Party looks at them differently once they become veterans. Almost all veterans need some form of health care, some will need drastic care for the rest of their lives because of the sacrifice they made in war, but the Republican Party continues to turn a blind eye to their needs. The fact is that $3.2 billion more than the current budget proposal is needed just to maintain the current level of health care programs for veterans.

The entire Department of Veteran's Affairs is going to suffer because of the Republican agenda. I have heard from veterans groups throughout my district in Houston and I am sure each Member of this body has heard from groups in their own district because veterans are one group that come from all parts of this Nation. These brave veterans have told me their stories of how they are suffering now with the current state of Veterans Affairs, I am going to have trouble telling them that not only will things continue to stay bad but if this Budget Conference Report passes this body things will only continue to get worse. That is not what our returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan should have to look forward to, a future where their needs are not only unprovided for, but are in fact ignored.

Education and Veterans Affairs make up only two areas where the Budget Conference Report fails Americans. The truth is there are many other programs and services vital to our Nation that are at risk because of the Republican agenda. At this point, an average American may be asking why the Republican Party finds it necessary to cut so many fundamental programs. The answer is simple, yet disturbing; the majority party is cutting important programs in order to finance all their irresponsible tax cuts. They will continue to make the argument that tax cuts provide stimulus for our economy, but millions of unemployed Americans will tell you otherwise. In fact the Congressional Budget Office itself said ``tax legislation will probably have a net negative effect on saving, investment, and capital accumulation over the next 10 years.''

While the Republican Party continues its offensive for irresponsible tax policies they allow our national deficit to grow increasingly larger. When President Bush came into office he inherited a budget surplus of $236 billion in 2000. Now, however, this administration has raided those surpluses and its fiscally irresponsible tax policies have driven the country ever deeper into debt. A $5.6 trillion 10-year projected surplus for the period 2002-2011 has been converted into a projected deficit for the same period of $3.9 trillion--a reversal of $9.5 trillion. Much like the President's budget, the Budget Conference Report before us omits the longer-term costs of either the war in Iraq or fixing the AMT, yet still tries to make claims of reducing the deficit. It is clear that the Republican Party is hiding from the American people. This President and this majority in Congress have yet to advocate a fiscal policy that helps average Americans. Special interests have become king in this Budget Conference Report at the price of sound fiscal policies.

This body was made to stand for the will of all Americans; if we allow this budget proposal to take effect we will have failed our mandate. I for one will not stand by silently; I have a duty to my constituents and indeed to all Americans to work for their well being and I will continue to honor that duty.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the budget resolution that we are going to vote on here in about 30 or 45 minutes because we are a body about solutions. If we do not pass the budget, we have no opportunity to solve some of the problems that face our great Nation.

The committee that I chair does have jurisdiction over the Medicaid program and a large portion of the Medicare program, as well as telecommunications and energy. And in the instructions for reconciliation in this budget, we are asked to try to find savings of approximately $20 billion over the next 5 years.

For those who are not familiar with the arcane process of reconciliation, it is very similar to what happens when a husband and wife have a spat and they get mad and they do not talk to each other for a while. Eventually they reconcile. They come back together. That is what we do here in this body. We do it between the Committee on Appropriations and the authorizing committees, and we also do it between the House and the Senate. We fight all year, but at the end of the year, we are going to have a reconciliation. We are going to come forward, hopefully on a bipartisan basis; and we are going to say we want some solutions to some of these problems.

The Medicaid program is a $300 billion-a-year program. It is about 60 percent funded by the Federal taxpayers and about 40 percent funded by State taxpayers. Twenty-nine States in the last 3 years have frozen their Medicaid populations. The State of Tennessee, for example, has kicked 323,000 people off their Medicaid rolls because they just did not have the money.

There are a lot of good ideas out there in terms of things we could do to reform Medicaid. We are not talking about trying to do things to kick people off the rolls. We are talking about things like letting people stay at home instead of having to go to a nursing home to get long-term care. We are talking about giving the States the flexibility perhaps to decide how to price some of their pharmaceuticals. We are talking about commonsense things like people that have some assets, getting them to use reverse mortgages on their homes so they can stay and live at home and not have to hide that or sell that home and then go into a nursing home.

So I know it is difficult, but this is a budget about solutions. And I hope that we will pass it so that we can begin the reconciliation process at the appropriate time with the other body.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this budget resolution. On March 17, this House voted 218 to 214 in support of a budget that instructed the Committee on Energy and Commerce to find $20 billion in savings. Members at that time recognized the importance of reducing the rapid rate of growth in entitlement programs like Medicaid. As the House and Senate reconcile our two budgets, we need to continue to be diligent and stay on the path of fiscal responsibility.

Opponents of this resolution argue that any budget resolution that allows for Medicaid reforms will cause untold suffering for Medicaid beneficiaries. This argument ignores the fundamental truth that these beneficiaries are already suffering. In Tennessee and Missouri, over three hundred thousand beneficiaries are going to lose their health coverage, due to the out-of-control growth in Medicaid costs. Other States are imposing restrictions on benefits, including limits on the total number of prescriptions a beneficiary can receive per month and restricting access to other basic services.

Without Congressional action, these problems are just going to get worse. Mississippi's Medicaid program ran out of money last year, and they were almost unable to pay their providers. Unfortunately, the current Medicaid program traps beneficiaries in a second rate health program, where too often they cannot get access to quality care or manage their chronic conditions.

These problems stem in large part from the explosive growth in Medicaid spending. From 2000 to 2003 alone, Medicaid spending grew at an average rate of 10 percent each year. Neither the States nor the Federal Government can sustain these rates of spending growth. That is why Governor Mark Warner (D-VA) recently warned that ``we are on our way to a meltdown'' on Medicaid.

By including Medicaid reforms in the budget, we're attempting to save this important program. Our efforts will not cut Medicaid, but only slow its rate of growth. In 1993, Medicaid spending was approximately $132 billion. By 2003, the program had more than doubled, and it is expected to cost $5 trillion over the next 10 years. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) projects that Medicaid will ``grow more rapidly than the economy over the next several decades and . . . add substantially to the overall budget deficit.''

I take Medicaid reform extremely seriously. There are 46 million people out there who depend on the Medicaid program, and I don't want to let them down. That is why I have been working with members of Congress, Secretary Mike Leavitt, and several key Governors to identify solutions to the problems that face Medicaid. Over the next few months, my Committee will hold several additional hearings on different aspects of Medicaid reform. Yesterday, we held our first Medicaid hearing this year on long-term care. These hearings and the additional work we are doing will lead to a reform proposal that can strengthen and improve the Medicaid program. The Energy & Commerce Committee is doing its job. I would urge Members of Congress to do theirs and vote against this budget.

Mr. Speaker, since coming to Congress, I have been struck by the majority party's spending policies. Under their watch, the Nation's debt has grown by $2.2 trillion over the last 4 years. The annual deficit is averaging more than $200 billion and this year's budget is no different, spending more than we are bringing in and increasing the Nation's debt. In fact, this budget will allow for $412 billion in deficit spending, increasing the interest that we are paying on our Nation's debts, interest that already totals more than we are spending on education, the environment and veterans.

I was proud to join my Democratic colleagues in putting forward better ways to refocus our spending and investments on the priorities that matter to everyday lives of Americans: keeping and creating new jobs, lowering the cost of health care, and providing for a safe and secure homeland.

We put forward an alternative budget that would have balanced the Federal Government's checkbook by 2012, something the Republican budget fails to do, while meeting our basic obligations to hardworking Americans. These efforts were, unfortunately, rejected along party lines.

Mr. Speaker, the time has come for us to lead not just with words, but in deeds. This means enacting a spending plan that will meet basic budgetary principles of meeting our obligations, working within our resources, and making smart investments. I urge a ``no'' vote on this resolution so we can return to negotiations and return to fiscal discipline.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the resolution.

Two weeks ago, the House passed legislation aimed at promoting and encouraging personal financial responsibility. Yet, we are on the cusp of enacting a fiscal year 2006 budget that is fiscally-unsound.

It is a budget that prioritizes tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and largest corporations at the expense of creating opportunities for hard-working Americans and helping people meet their responsibilities. It is a budget that puts political expediency over honest budgeting by failing to acknowledge future increases in the deficit and neglecting to live within available revenues. It is a budget that will allow the government to increase spending and implement new tax cuts without finding a way to pay for the associated costs.

Mr. Speaker, I supported the bankruptcy bill because I believe people who have the means available have an obligation to meet their financial obligations. However, just as we are asking individual Americans to take responsibility for their spending decisions, so must the Federal Government.

Since coming to Congress, I've been struck by the majority party's spending policies. Under their watch, the nation's debt has grown by $2.2 trillion over the last four years, with annual deficits averaging more than $200 billion. And this year's budget is no different; spending more that we are bringing in and increasing the Nation's debt. In fact, this budget will allow for $412 billion in deficit spending. Increasing the interest we are paying on our Nation's debt; interest that already totals more than we are spending on education, the environment or our veterans.

My colleagues, our decisions have consequences, and the consequences of this budget will be felt by every American. Our first-responders will go without equipment needed to keep communities, and themselves, safe from harm. Our veterans will be subjected to health care fees or reduced benefits. Our best and brightest will continue to struggle to afford a college degree. And some of our Nation's disabled and sickest citizens will continue to go without needed medical care and services unless our State and local governments pick up the costs.

During committee consideration of the budget resolution, I was proud to join my Democratic colleagues in putting forward better ways to re- focus our spending and investments on the priorities that matter to the everyday lives of Americans--keeping and creating new jobs, lowering the costs of health care and providing for a safe and secure homeland. We put forward an alternative budget, one that would have balanced the Federal Government's checkbook by 2012--something the Republican budget fails to do--while better meeting our obligations to hard-working Americans. These efforts were, unfortunately, rejected along party lines.

Mr. Speaker, the time has come for us to lead not just in words, but in deeds. That means enacting a spending plan that meets basic budgetary principles of meeting one's obligations, working within the resources you have and making smart investments that will ensure the Nation's current and future fiscal well-being.

I urge a ``no'' vote on this resolution so that we can return to the negotiating table and find a better way; one that represents a true commitment to sound budgetary principles and fiscal responsibility. One that funds the right priorities, makes the right investments and in so doing builds a Nation that is strengthened rather than weakened by the decisions we make today.