Majority Leader New Budget Committee Report« Thread Started on Oct 5, 2007, 7:02am » --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Majority Leader Hoyer’s Statement onNew Budget Committee Report --------------------------------------------------------------------------------WASHINGTON, DC – House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today regarding a new report by the House Budget Committee on Democrats’ reinstatement of fiscal discipline in the 110th Congress: “The report released today by the House Budget Committee and Chairman John Spratt provides concrete evidence that Democrats, in fact, are the party of fiscal discipline in Washington. After six years of borrow-and-spend policies under Republican control, Democrats have restored fiscal discipline to the legislative process. “In one of our first acts after regaining the Majority, Democrats restored pay-as-you-go budget rules – the same rules that helped create record surpluses in the 1990s. And, every bill brought to the House Floor this year has adhered to these rules. The Democratic-led Congress also passed a budget plan that will bring our budget back to balance by 2012. “In the six years that Republicans controlled both Congress and the White House, they enacted tax cuts and entitlement spending increases that increased the deficit by nearly $1.4 trillion. Instead of paying for their irresponsible policies, they just kept on billing the costs of tax cuts and spending increases to future generations. “Unlike Republicans, Democrats are willing to make the tough choices necessary in order to pay for our priorities and restore fiscal responsibility to our nation’s budget. We have made cuts in low-priority spending and unjustified subsidies in order to fund investments providing health care for low-income children, making college more affordable, moving toward energy independence and other priorities. In fact, nearly 80% of the increased mandatory spending approved by the House this year was offset by cuts in other spending. For all their talk about being tough on spending, Republicans in Congress actually have consistently opposed the spending cuts that we have put forward. “Democrats are committed to adhering to this important principle of fiscal responsibility. If the President is sincere in his newfound interest in fiscal discipline he should join us in following the pay-as-you-go principle.”