Mr. Speaker, Ranking Member Spratt and members of the Committee, thank you for giving me and my colleagues the opportunity to testify before you today. I am honored to be here. As you know, the budget decisions we make this session will have an enormous impact on the lives of Americans for years to come, and I am grateful for the Committee’s efforts to solicit input from other members of the House during this critical process.

Two years ago, the Administration and Congress were looking covetously at a staggering $5.6 trillion cumulative surplus through 2010. At the time, Congress was continually reassured by the Administration that we could afford an enormous tax cut, ensure the solvency of Social Security and Medicare, pay down the national debt, fund our domestic priorities and still have a large reserve fund for unanticipated emergencies. Like many of my colleagues, I cautioned the Administration at the time that its budget and enormous tax cut were based on unrealistic surplus projections that would never materialize.

Earlier this year, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed that in less than two years the 10-year projected surplus has been erased. While portions of this decline are a result of our efforts to defeat terrorism and preserve national security both at home and abroad, the depletion of the surplus to date was largely caused by the fiscally irresponsible policies of 2001. The additional $831 billion in tax cuts, about half of which are due to excluding dividends from taxation, that the President proposes would only worsen our current situation and lead us further down the path of mounting deficits and escalating public debt.

To pay for the additional tax cuts, the President’s budget would raid the entire $2.2 trillion Social Security trust fund to cover deficits in the rest of the federal budget over the next ten years. Moreover, the projections used to frame this budget are overly optimistic. They do not include the cost of the Administration’s plan to permanently extend several expiring tax cuts, which would add billions of dollars to the deficit between 2004 and 2013. The projections also leave out an assessment of the cost of a potential war in Iraq, which has recently been estimated.

The disappearance of the 10-year surplus compels us to consider not just a one-year but also a long-term budget plan. Congress and the American people have the right to know how the Administration proposes to restore fiscal discipline while enacting additional multi-year tax cuts, boosting spending for the military, and meeting commitments to a growing number of retirees. Furthermore, I find it incredibly irresponsible that the Administration continues to pursue large tax cuts while shortchanging important priorities like homeland security, education, the environment and retirement security. The Administration and Congress should devise budgetary rules that make tax cuts contingent on the realization of specified targets for the budget surplus and the federal debt. Unfortunately, this budget fails on all those accounts.

In closing, I would like to thank the Chairman and Ranking Member for allowing me to take part in this important discussion. The need to respond to new short-term needs does not provide an excuse for ignoring the long-term problems we already have. Ultimately, deficits do matter. It is time that we all take the deteriorating budget outlook seriously. We need to ensure that the burden of today’s fiscal policies is not placed on the shoulders of our children and grandchildren. This is a matter of fiscal stewardship and generational responsibility, and we must address it without delay.