Robert C. Byrd

The Senate Budget Committee, of which I am a member, each year reviews the budget submitted by the President of the United States and establishes the parameters for federal spending for the coming fiscal year. The Senate Budget Committee also examines the close relationship between the nation's fiscal policy and economic strength.

For the last eight years, the previous Administration mortgaged our children's and grandchildren's future through massive budget deficits, while short-changing critical domestic priorities. Funding for essential domestic programs – our roads and bridges, schools and hospitals, drinking water and sanitation systems -- had been severely reduced to fund tax cuts for the wealthy, and a disastrous war and nation-building misadventure in

Iraq

With a new Administration and a new Congress, we have an opportunity to begin to reverse this course of action, but it won’t be quick and it won’t be easy. It will require investing in domestic infrastructure that has been starved for too long, in order to prepare the economy for an economic recovery. It will also require adopting some tough budget enforcement mechanisms to once again take control of exploding budget deficits.

In 1990, I championed a budget enforcement agreement at Andrews Air Force Base, which was ratified by the George H. W. Bush Administration, and later embraced by the Clinton Administration, producing the historic budget surpluses of the 1990s. I believe we must renew that agreement, and insist that new spending and tax cuts be offset, along with realistic and enforceable spending caps.

I continue to believe that the best way to strengthen the U.S. economy is to invest in our physical and human infrastructure, including the American people. Although it will be difficult, I will continue to advocate for a budget that reflects the values of West Virginia.