Supporting the goals and ideals of Financial Literacy Month 2009, and for other purposes.

I thank the chairman for yielding. I thank the ranking member for his views.

There is a disagreement, Madam Speaker. We have had a substantive disagreement for a long time. In fact, when I was elected to the Congress in 1981, we had a very substantive disagreement on what the economic policies would produce in terms of the supply-side economic theory. My view, which differs from Mr. Ryan's, is that it produced large deficits, and it produced large deficits in every year that it was practiced in the 29 years that I have been here. Only in the 8 years where President Clinton had the veto pen and said no, we're not going to go down that road, did we produce surpluses. Now, they were produced in large part because of an economy that rose more rapidly than any of us expected because of the chip, the information technology explosion, all of which was to the best interest of our country. We had a $5.6 trillion surplus projected in 2001 by President Bush as a result. Unfortunately, we pursued a policy with which I disagreed and which I said would produce high deficits and would not help our economy. In fact, we produced high deficits, and our economy was in the worst shape that any President has inherited an economy since Franklin Roosevelt. President Obama was confronted with an economy that was in substantial decline.

Today the House has the rare opportunity to set America on a responsible course for the future. I congratulate Mr. Spratt, I congratulate Mr. Boyd and Ms. DeLauro, members of the conference, for the courage and leadership they have displayed. Mr. Spratt has been, as always, extraordinarily informed and extraordinarily involved with all of our Members in trying to get to this point. The course that we set ourselves on, in my view, is one of lasting prosperity, and I urge my colleagues to seize this opportunity.

Along with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, this budget is a key part of our response to this recession. We have the power to emerge from this recession a stronger Nation, one with a future of clean energy and energy independence and a workforce ready to compete with the best in the world and a reformed system of health care. This budget provides for those objectives. We also have a chance to vote for the principles of fiscal responsibility and put ourselves on a truly sustainable course.

There is a real difference in this House, in the Senate, and in this country about what fiscal responsibility means. I believe it means we pay for what we buy rather than simply cutting our revenues, increasing our purchases, and hoping somehow something magical will happen to balance the budget. It has never happened in the 20 years that I have served with Republican Presidents pursuing that philosophy.

On energy, the budget funds incentives for cutting-edge research and clean energy jobs, as well as an energy-efficient, money-saving, critically necessary smart grid.

On education this budget builds upon the recovery plan with additional support for early childhood education, elementary and secondary school students, and efforts to help more Americans obtain a college degree. It expands access to education in the make-or-break years of early childhood--I think critical if we are going to be competitive in world markets. It increases Pell grants to help more students afford higher education and promotes job training and significant education reform.

On health care this budget responds to the skyrocketing costs that are straining families and businesses across this Nation. Family premiums have more than doubled since the year 2000, and over the past 5 years, our total health care spending has increased at more than twice the rate of inflation, consuming more and more of our economy and our budget each year. This budget fights that trend by making a significant down-payment on the reform, taking steps to lower health care costs, improve quality, and expand access. That is what America voted in 2008. That is the responsibility that we are carrying out.

The budget also allows us to use reconciliation to provide for an up- or-down vote on reforming health care, not as an option or first resort but as a fallback if partisanship blocks progress.

Essentially we're saying the majority will make policy. It didn't take 60 percent to elect the President. It didn't take 60 percent to elect any of us to this body. The premise of our Founding Fathers was if a majority of Americans believe we ought to move in a direction, that's the direction we ought to move. That has proved a very successful policy for over two centuries. It is a policy that we are providing for here. It is a policy that was provided for by the Republicans when they were in charge time after time after time.

As the bipartisan Concord Coalition points out: ``The budget reconciliation process was used in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, and 2005 to reduce taxes,'' as opposed to deficit reduction, which, of course, reconciliation is designed to address.

Moreover, a case can be made that health care reform that includes spending restraints and squeezes inefficiencies out of the system is integral to reining in the rapid growth of health care costs, which is a major, a major driver of deficits.

I want to stress that last point. It is essential that health care reform includes difficult choices to cut costs, which will eventually result in lower deficits. Why? Because of the $2.4 trillion that we spend on health care, half of that comes from the government, either Federal or State.

All of these investments are vital to our future economic health and competitiveness. As President Obama recently pointed out: ``A cash- strapped family may cut back on all kinds of luxuries but will insist on spending money to get their children through college.''

Our country is in the same position. These tough times are no excuse to cut back on investments that will pay off many times over down the road.

Finally, this budget puts America back on the path of fiscal responsibility. It's no secret that past budgets have made easy choices and kicked the difficult ones down the road.

Let me say, as I have said so many times before, it takes no courage whatsoever to cut taxes. None. Zero. What takes courage, political courage, if we want to buy things, is to pay for them. That's what takes courage. You can make one of two decisions: Don't buy and keep revenue stable, or buy and pay for so that your children aren't paying for it. Those are the decisions that I am prepared to make and, very frankly, have made over the last 40 years that I have been in office.

This House needs to make those choices. That's why Allen Boyd, John Spratt and others have pursued so vigorously statutory PAYGO requirements. That's why I am in such support of them.

In 1990, statutory PAYGO led to that surplus that I referred to. Jettisoning that in the early part of this decade led to the deficits that we have experienced.

And why did you jettison PAYGO? Because you were unprepared to pay for the revenue losses that you voted for.

But by passing this budget we will be leaving a different legacy, one that makes clear that our government must pay for what it buys. This budget cuts the deficit from 10.5 percent of GDP in 2009 to 3 percent of GDP in 2013--in other words, by nearly two-thirds. Those savings come from spending restraint and oversight that save taxpayer money. We must do that. We cannot pursue the policies that we have been pursuing. They are not sustainable.

Most importantly, the House is strongly committed to statutory PAYGO. President Obama asked Congress, and again I quote, to develop a PAYGO law that would help return the Nation to a path of fiscal responsibility, and that is what we intend to do.

That is what this budget does. The House will not consider any bills on middle-income tax cuts, the estate tax, AMT relief, or the sustainable growth rate in the Medicare program unless they include statutory PAYGO, they are fully offset, or statutory PAYGO has already been enacted. Everybody wants to deal with those four issues. Let us see if everybody is prepared in this generation to pay for them and not pass those costs on to the next generation.

I urge my colleagues to approve this conference report, pass this budget and show our constituents that the priorities they voted for in 2008 are ours as well.

I again congratulate the chairman, the members of the conference committee and the members of the Budget Committee for their leadership and for their courage.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

It is indeed an honor to call Mr. Spratt ``colleague.'' We say that from time to time about our Members, but never is it truer than in the case of Chairman John Spratt of South Carolina. He is a gentleman who has brought the values of our country, the principles of our great democracy, to bear on writing a budget.

Because of his leadership, today, for the first time in many, many years, we have a President's budget on the floor that is a statement of our national values. What is important to us as a Nation is reflected in this budget. It is a very happy day for our country, Mr. Spratt, because of your leadership.

I thank all of the members of the Budget Committee for their hard work, expressing their views, coming forth with a budget that is a blueprint for the future. I also want to commend our conferees, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and Congressman Boyd, for assisting you in the conference process.

Starting at the beginning of this year, this Congress passed a stimulus package to take our country in a new direction. Since that time, we have been on a sprint to create jobs, to lower the deficit, to cut taxes for the American people. This blueprint, this budget, is a bookend to that stimulus package. It is the foundation for how we go forward into the future.

In the first 100 days, it enables us to make the claim with these two pieces of legislation and bills that have come in between, for example, the SCHIP, children's health insurance, 11 million children in America; the public lands bill, the biggest conservation bill in many, many years; and other initiatives contained in our agenda in the past few months, enables us to say that more has been done in this period of time for health care than in decades, since Medicare was passed in this Congress and signed into law. More has been done on education than in generations, since the GI Bill was passed during World War II, and even more than that. And in terms of energy, there is absolutely no contest. It is far out there in terms of breaking ground and reducing our dependence on foreign oil, creating new green jobs for a green future for America's economy, for honoring our moral responsibility to protect God's beautiful creation, and to keeping our environment clean and healthy for our children. These three, education, health care and energy, are what the business community and other sectors of our community tell us are the investments that we must make in order to turn our economy around.

So here we are today with a budget before us that creates jobs, reduces taxes, and takes us over a path of lowering the deficit. It does so in the most

transparent way of any budget in our country's history, and certainly in this Congress' history. As it does so, as I say, it focuses on those three pillars of the Obama agenda: education, health care and energy.

In terms of energy, in the first 100 days an article in Fortune magazine of April 29 states that this is ``the greenest budget ever. Obama's $3.55 trillion budget proposal is a one-two punch for cleantech. It boosts funding for renewables while slashing tax breaks for fossil fuels. Obama's wish list,'' now, this is another organization called Climate Progress, ``Climate Progress called the Obama wish list `the first sustainable budget in U.S. history.' It includes $15 billion per year for cleantech over a decade,'' and it goes on.

This is in addition to the initiative that was passed earlier on in the recovery package known as the stimulus package. It is called ``greener stimulus.'' ``Signed in February, the stimulus package is chock-full of cleantech goodies with $43 billion for grants for clean power, extensions of tax credits for solar, wind, geothermal and energy efficiency programs, smart grid funding, weatherization programs and a new tax credit for cleantech hardware manufacturing.''

I mention that because we must see this budget in the context of the issues which we are trying to advance. Of themselves, they are worthy. They have their justification, as I mentioned in the case of energy. But they are also investments that will grow our economy and create jobs.

When it comes to health care, another pillar of the Obama budget, as the President says, health care reform is entitlement reform. As we go forward with universal, quality, accessible health care for all Americans, which this budget will lead us to, we will be reducing the cost of health care for the American people, and in lowering those costs, we will lower the cost to our budget and the cost to the deficit of Medicare and Medicaid.

This is not just about the personal health of the American people. That would be justification enough, the personal well-being of our country. And it is not only about health care, it is about the health of the American people. It is about prevention. It is about diet, not diabetes.

So we are moving in a path that lowers costs, makes America healthier, and in doing so, as I say, not only helps individuals with their health, personal well-being, but we are helping businesses to compete. Health care costs are a competitiveness issue, and if we're going to compete domestically and internationally, we must lower health care costs for businesses. It's about costs to our economy, of all of this money spent on health care and not having the commensurate health of America to go with it. And, again, it's about lowering the cost, reducing entitlement. Health care reform is entitlement reform.

In terms of education, this budget calls for innovative approaches from early childhood to tax credits for costs of college, as well as increasing the funding for Pell Grants and making college more affordable. So, from earliest childhood to higher education, and then beyond, this budget is a path not only for, again, the self-fulfillment of the American people, but the innovation of America. Innovation begins in the classroom.

So all three of these are measures which, again, are justified and necessary in their own right, but will reduce the deficit, will create jobs, and will do so in a new way, taking us in a new direction.

So, having said that, this is a budget about the future. I was very tempted, when I saw the leader with his voting card, to bring a picture of my granddaughter, my new granddaughter, just a little over a month old, to the floor. Oh, we do have it here. I won't resist the temptation, for two reasons. First of all, I can't take my eyes off of her, and second of all, this is what our commitment is about. It's our commitment to the future, to these children.

As we go forward, we must take the country in a new direction, and in doing so, reduce the deficit. We are not here to heap mountains of debt on our children and our grandchildren. That is what was done in the last 8 years in the Bush administration. This budget calls a halt to that and says no. It says no more debt.

We're going in the opposite direction. We're reducing the deficit as we create good-paying jobs in our economy, as we cut taxes for the middle class in our country.

This is a magnificent blueprint for the future. And again, I salute Chairman Spratt for his extraordinary leadership in bringing it to the floor today and urge all of my colleagues to vote ``yes'' for a new direction for our country.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself 3 minutes.

Madam Speaker, I get a little bit of a sense of deja vu this morning. We've kind of been around this vote a while. But we got some new news this morning that's troubling news. The economy in the first quarter of this year has declined by 6.1 percent, 6.1 percent negative economic growth, the worst drop in our economy now since the mid 1970s. And if you look at the data, it shows you that the American consumer is more or less hanging in there. It's the investment from businesses that has dried up. It is business investment that's not occurring in this economy that's creating this great recession leading to all these job losses.

So as we look at this budget, I think a few new points ought to be brought to light since we have been around this budget quite a bit, which is, number one, looking at the economic data underneath this budget. It shows you that the debt and deficits that are currently projected in this budget are going to go much higher.

If you take a look at the economic assumptions that the Office of Management and Budget uses, they're a whole lot rosier than what's occurring. If you look at their inflation projections, which inflation just came in at 2.9 percent this quarter, they're a whole lot rosier, meaning put reality into the

budget and the deficits and debts go even higher.

We already see that the Congressional Budget Office is telling us, versus the President's budget numbers, were about $2.1 trillion deeper into deficits. Now with this new data, even more red ink.

But worse yet, as I just described, the current bad economic numbers we got, business investment is down. That means businesses are not investing.

So what does this budget do? It raises taxes on investment. It raises taxes on businesses.

You've got to remember, Madam Speaker, that almost 70 percent of our jobs come from small businesses. More than half of those who pay those top tax rates are small businesses. It's those industrial companies that are in the business parks that ring the sides of our cities in Elkhorn and Janesville and Kenosha and Racine, Wisconsin. That's where most people get their jobs.

So what does this bill do? It raises taxes on those small businesses. It actually raises their taxes such to the point where they pay a higher tax rate than the largest corporations in America.

This budget also repeals tax deferral. Now, what does that mean? That means all of our big businesses that make things in America and sell them overseas, we're going to tax them twice and make our exports even less competitive. We're going to tax business investment. What does it do on capital gains and dividends, on the seed corn and seed capital that funds the innovations, that funds the entrepreneurial startups, that the small businesses go to to get their money to expand and invest and create jobs? It raises taxes on that as well.

So we are raising taxes on the very things that give us business investment and give us jobs. We are raising taxes on the very things that make up our pensions, our 401(k)s, and our college savings plans. And we are raising these taxes $1.5 trillion a year in order to chase ever higher spending.

I yield myself an additional 30 seconds to say that we are raising taxes, the most we have ever done. I know the chairman will give us some convoluted explanation on how this is actually cutting taxes. Keeping taxes where they are on some tax policies is not cutting taxes; it's keeping taxes where they are. Making them go up means you're raising them to chase higher spending. The higher taxes in this bill never catch the higher spending; so we have a mountain of debt among the likes we have never seen before.

That is why we have such a difference of opinion with this budget. That is why we offered a principled alternative to this budget, which is controlling spending, keeping taxes low, and getting our debt under control.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to our distinguished minority whip, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Cantor).

I yield the gentleman 1 additional minute.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to our distinguished House Conference chairman, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence).

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

Madam Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute.

Madam Speaker, this is a big moment. This is a big moment in our history that the historians will look back to as a key pivot in American history and the American experiment and the American project.

What this budget does not do is it does not practice Clinton economics. It does not practice the kind of economics we have had in this country that gave us the longest peacetime expansion, the kind of economics that gave us unprecedented prosperity. Bill Clinton cut tax rates and controlled spending in a bipartisan budget agreement in 1997 which paved the way for the surpluses that later occurred, which were projected, that went away. It was bipartisan.

This is different. This is new. This budget takes a look at those mistakes made in the past that we are hearing all these criticisms of, too much spending, too much debt, and what does it do? It adds to it. Instead of controlling spending, as the critics have said we should have done, this has spending go out of control. Instead of controlling the debt, as the critics say should have occurred, debt goes out of control.

I urge a rejection of this budget. Let's start over again and save this country and move us down the path of fiscal discipline, not fiscal recklessness.

Madam Speaker, at this time I yield our final minute to our distinguished minority leader, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner).

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 357, supporting the goals and ideals of Financial Literacy Month. I would also like to commend the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Hinojosa, and the gentlelady from Illinois, Mrs. Biggert, the co-chairs of the Financial Literacy Caucus, for all of their hard work on this important issue.

It is imperative in our current economy that we do everything we possibly can to encourage greater financial literacy for all Americans. As we all know, a major factor in the collapse of our financial markets can be attributed to unscrupulous lenders who took advantage of consumers. In these cases, predatory lenders, looking to make a quick buck, misled consumers by encouraging them to enter into complicated mortgage products, such as adjustable rate mortgages, without fully understanding the implications if home prices fell or interest rates adjusted. In other cases, irresponsible borrowers took advantage of so- called ``no-doc'' loans to exaggerate income information to buy a home they couldn't afford or re-finance to pull equity out, as if their home were an ATM machine. This eventually led to higher mortgage delinquencies and contributed to the housing downturn, ultimately affecting responsible homeowners who lived within their means and paid their mortgages on time. Even the best and brightest minds on Wall Street fell prey to this problem, making bad bets and overexposing their organizations with complicated financial products based on these bad loans. As mortgage defaults increased, the value of many of these real estate-related products collapsed, creating a

downturn which spread to other sectors of the global economy.

It is clear that an understanding of personal finance--from basic spending decisions to deciphering borrowing terms to investing and saving--is important to effectively plan for the future. And there are significant signs that we need to help our youth establish a strong foundation in personal finance at an early age and practice these lessons throughout life. For example, the Jump$tart Coalition's 2008 survey found that only 48.3 percent of high school seniors possessed an understanding of basic finance, a decline from the 2006 survey. At the same time, according to an April 2009 Sallie Mae report, 84 percent of college undergraduates had at least one credit card. This represents a disturbing trend, as these statistics demonstrate that while these young adults have access to credit, they may not necessarily understand how to use it wisely. If we don't encourage our children to understand personal finance now, we run the risk of repeating the same mistakes all over again.

Mr. Speaker, that is why we must all do our part to enhance financial literacy. On April 21, the American Bankers Association Education Foundation held their annual Teach Children to Save Day, to help young people enhance their savings skills. Since 1997, 72,000 bankers have participated to teach nearly 3.2 million youth. Also, America's credit unions made presentations at local schools on financial issues during National Credit Union Youth Week, April 19 to 25. In addition, www.consumer.gov, a website sponsored by 100 Federal agencies, provides assistance to consumers on a variety of financial matters, including shopping for a mortgage or auto loan, understanding credit card statements and planning for savings and retirement.

At the same time, Congress needs to take action to help workers and families begin to rebuild their savings and retirement accounts, and prepare for the future. That is why I am supporting the Savings Recovery Act, which I co-authored this month with several of my colleagues. This bill includes a number of provisions that will help working families recoup the losses that have been suffered and once again build up the savings and retirement accounts that give us all confidence in our financial futures.

Also of note, late last year, the Federal Reserve Board approved final rules which enhance consumer protections and improve credit card disclosure terms. The new rules, which go into effect on July 1, 2010, protect against unexpected interest rate increases, provide consumers with adequate time to make payments and make borrowing terms more understandable for consumers.

Put simply, financial literacy is about opportunity. It is about empowering individuals to make informed financial decisions, helping them to attain financial independence and future prosperity. Working together, we can ensure that America's youth gain a fundamental understanding of personal finance to help them succeed later in life. I am honored to be an original co-sponsor of this measure and urge Members to vote ``yes'' on the resolution.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished majority leader, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).

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

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Boyd).

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

I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews).

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

Madam Speaker, how much time remains?

I yield myself 3\1/2\ minutes.

Madam Speaker, we are here this morning to pick up where we left off yesterday, but really we are here to pick up the tab left over by the Bush administration.

The Bush administration has left us with an economy in recession, a Nation $5 trillion deeper in debt, and a budget in deficit, deep deficit, $1.845 trillion according to the CBO.

This is the hand dealt us. After 8 years of the Bush administration, we have to play the ball where it lies.

After listening to the debate on the other side of the aisle, I think it would be helpful to start by pointing out what this budget is not. This is not a budget that increases spending. Total spending in 2009 will be $3.9 trillion. If we pass this resolution, total spending in 2010 will be $3.6 trillion. That's $300 billion less, not more. And all the initiatives we specify will be paid for.

Despite what you have heard on the floor, this is not a budget resolution that increases taxes. It lowers taxes by $764 billion over 5 years and by $1.7 trillion over 10 years. It renews the middle-income tax cuts. It extends the estate tax at the 2009 level. This is not about tax increases. It's about tax decreases.

This is not a budget resolution that increases the deficit. Far from it. By 2014, this budget resolution will reduce the deficit from $1.845 trillion this year to $525 billion next year. This is a deficit reduction budget.

Let me also answer the extravagant claims made on the floor about how much debt accumulation will occur under this bill. Look at table 5 in your blue book here and look at the bottom line in debt net of financial assets. In the budget year, the first budget year, the debt net of financial assets is $8.072 trillion. In 2014 it's $10.642 trillion.

Now I am not here to tout a $2.5 trillion addition to our national debt, although it pales in comparison to what happened under Mr. Bush. But I am simply saying this is better by far than anything you have heard characterized on the House floor.

Now the budget is about more than numbers. It's about values, visions and investments. And what we have to tout and talk about in offering this budget resolution to the House is what it will do for health care in our country, and particularly for the 46 million people who do not have coverage; what it will do for the educational system of this country if we can tell every child in America, yes, you can, you can get a higher education, Pell Grants will help you do so; what it will do to help build energy independence and reduce the carbon emissions in this country. We can have energy innovation.

All of this is provided for in this bill. And I would emphasize all of it is provided for in deficit-neutral reserve funds which do not add to the bottom line the debt of the United States. This is what we are presenting here.

Now the deficit before us is a structural deficit. It's part cyclical, but mostly structural. It's built into the budget that we have to deal with. After 8 years of the Bush administration, there is a massive mismatch between revenues and spending in the budget that creates the huge deficits we have got today.

We cannot turn this big battleship around overnight, but we can put it on the right path towards fiscal responsibility again. And that is exactly what this budget resolution does. That is why everybody in the House who believes in budget reduction, believes in fiscal responsibility, should vote for this budget resolution.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews).

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

Madam Speaker, I yield my remaining time to the distinguished Speaker of this House, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi).