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Congressman Bill Posey (R-Rockledge) released the following statement regarding the $3.555 Trillion budget which passed the House today:

“I’m disappointed with the budget conference report before the House today. It’s a $3.555 Trillion budget and leaves a $1.233 Trillion deficit for the year 2010. This budget increases taxes by $1.5 Trillion over the next 10 years and the Majority admits that the budget deficits never fall below $523 Billion. This budget borrows from American’s of tomorrow to pay for the wants of this current generation. Over 10 years, the budget more than doubles the national debt.

“I hope the economy recovers for all Americans. But sadly, this budget plan takes us down a different path that will harm our long-term economy and will likely create sluggish economic growth. This budget is not the right prescription for what ails this economy. Our children and grand children deserve better.

“Congress needs to focus on creating the right kind of environment for job-creation, ensuring that businesses small, medium and large can grow and prosper. That means providing the right kinds of incentives for Americans to start a business, or for a business to grow and add jobs, or to provide benefits like health insurance. Sadly, this bill includes a budget process (known as reconciliation) to leave the door open for a plan to raise taxes on millions of small businesses and saddle them with billions of dollars in burdensome and costly “cap and trade” global warming taxes. American workers should be forewarned; the “cap and trade” tax will cost Americans millions of jobs.

“So I ask, under this budget ‘What’s the incentive to do business here in America?’ The U.S. has the second highest corporate income tax in the world which encourages employers to close up in America or at least do their expansions overseas rather than here at home. Cap and trade will add a further burden to businesses operating in the U.S.

“And while this budget hires new bureaucrats in Washington, it allows tens of thousands of highly skilled technicians and engineers at NASA to be laid-off with the end of the space shuttle. Their jobs will of course be outsourced to Russia because the budget fails to bring the next generation space craft online for quite some time. This is a travesty when you think about the millions of high tech American jobs that have been created as a result of our investment in space – everything from cell phones, laptops and GPS to wireless technology and even Velcro. While the Budget gives lip service to additional funding for NASA and the Shuttle, the actual language in the budget does not provide actual dollars, would not add any additional Shuttle flights, and does nothing to close the human space flight gap.

“For two centuries, Americans have worked hard so their children could have better lives and greater opportunity. It seems to me what some want to do is reverse that order by having our children and grandchildren work hard so we don’t have to make the hard choices now. This amounts to generational theft and it is wrong, plain and simple.

“You know, while families and small businesses are making sacrifices when it comes to their own budget, Washington continues to spend trillions in taxpayer dollars – money it doesn’t even have – on bailouts and expansion of government programs. This has got to stop and the government has to learn to live within its own means just like everyone else.

“Mr. Chairman I rise in strong opposition to this budget conference report and urge my colleagues to vote against this plan that will saddle the next generation with an unbearable debt and kill millions of jobs here in America.”