mr. chairman , colleagues will remember the biblical story of the prophet nathan coming to the mighty king david . 
nathan told david a story about a rich man who had many sheep but took the one little ewe lamb of a poor man to feed a visiting friend . 
david flew into a rage at the rich man and proclaimed that anyone who should do such a thing deserved to be put to death for abusing his power and showing so little compassion . 
then nathan turned to david and said , `` you are that man. '' this story should lead us to look into the mirror . 
are we in danger of becoming `` that man '' ? 
the republican budget removes support for housing , education , medicaid , community development , and small business lending . 
it raises taxes on the poor . 
and it does all this so the republicans can afford new tax cuts for the wealthiest among us . 
if ever there were a moral issue before this congress , surely it is this one . 
one might expect that these cuts would at least result in significant decreases in our deficits , but this is not the case . 
we continue to face the worst-of-both-worlds scenario in which we suffer both devastating cuts and dangerous increases in the deficit . 
we continue to borrow from our children to pay for tax cuts , the wars in iraq and afghanistan , and the president 's social security privatization . 
as members of congress , we have a responsibility to be good stewards of the resources of our government , not simply to look at our immediate desires , but also to the needs of our children and our children 's children , including their need to be free of a crippling debt . 
republicans claim to be the party of moral values , but their budget belies that claim . 
the democratic alternative maintains current funding levels for our country 's critical domestic and security programs while also providing meaningful tax relief for middle-class americans . 
furthermore , the democratic budget recognizes that fiscal responsibility is also a moral value by reinstating a real pay-as-you-go rule and by balancing our budget within 7 years . 
the republican budget , on the other hand , continues to run up record deficits for as far as the eye can see . 
mr. chairman , the budget process provides each party with a chance to put its money where its mouth is , to act on the rhetoric we all hear around here year round . 
a budget is a statement of moral priorities . 
may we do justice to those imperatives in the vote we cast tomorrow . 
