mr. chairman , i thank the gentleman from south carolina ( mr. spratt ) xz4003860 for yielding me time . 
at some point tomorrow , the congressional black caucus will be introducing an alternative budget which we will discuss in detail . 
unfortunately , we have been allotted only 20 minutes on our side to discuss the details of that proposed , budget and i am delighted that the committee on the budget has seen fit to provide us a little bit more time this evening to discuss some of the benefits we believe will enure if the congressional black caucus budget is adopted . 
we will be asking the members of our house of representatives to make some basic choices because we believe that a budget is about making choices . 
there are two choices in particular we will be asking them to consider : would you rather provide a tax cut to people who make more than $ 200 , 000 per year , or would you rather spend approximately $ 30 billion dollars that you would save if you did not provide that tax cut on a series of things that would benefit our community and have a substantial potential of closing some of the disparities and gaps that have existed for years and years between african american citizens and white citizens in this country ? 
the second question we will be asking will be : would you rather spend $ 7.9 billion on a ballistic missile defense program which has been tested time after time after time and has failed all of those tests , or would you rather spend that $ 7.8 billion on providing more security to our troops , body armor , personnel support equipment , and other protective gear for our troops , and providing more benefits to our veterans in this country ? 
this is a basic choice that we at this point need to debate . 
our budget that we will be submitting and detailing tomorrow morning when we offer the congressional black caucus substitute budget will ask congress , what are your priorities ? 
that is what budget-making is about . 
and there is no trickery here . 
it is straightforward , and we will be asking our members to make those choices . 
