mr. chairman , i thank the gentleman for yielding me this time . 
first , i commend the gentleman from north carolina ( mr. watt ) xz4004240 for offering a budget alternative . 
i know that the gentleman and his staff , along with the other members of the congressional black caucus , worked very hard to put this budget together . 
working on the committee on the budget this year , i realize how difficult it is to get agreement on the type of budget we need . 
even to get a small group of people to agree on a budget is very difficult , so i commend the chairman of the congressional black caucus for putting this together and i certainly respect what the gentleman has done . 
but on so many issues we have disagreement on the content of the budget . 
first , i do not think we need to raise taxes at a time when our economy is trying to get its footing back . 
and at a time of war , we need to fully fund defense and homeland security . 
we have so many needs in this country that we have to fund and so many priorities that we must fund . 
i think our budget that we produced out of the committee on the budget is well balanced . 
i think it is appropriate for the time we are living , the time of war , the time of very strong homeland security needs , and we need to properly fund those items , which i believe our house budget that we produced out of the committee on the budget does . 
so i am very proud of the work that the gentleman from iowa ( mr. nussle ) xz4002980 has done to get a balanced approach for our budgeting . 
i would like to talk more about the qualities of our house budget that we have on the floor today . 
i think that is why we need to pass that budget unamended . 
first , our house budget fully funds the defense budget request of our president . 
there is a 4.8 percent increase , which totals $ 419 billion in defense spending , and a net increase of 2.3 percent in nonmilitary appropriated accounts for homeland security , including $ 32.5 billion for the department of homeland security . 
but furthermore , i think it is important that we talk about what it does for veterans . 
with veterans i have a chart here today discussing , showing our increase in veterans programs and the spending we have increased in veterans programs . 
there is a rapid increase in veterans spending especially during this time of war . 
we are funding veterans programs appropriately in this congress . 
we are funding more veterans health care programs . 
we are doing more for those serving to defend our country . 
the current house budget we have will increase veterans program spending to $ 67 billion . 
i think that is a move in the right direction . 
furthermore , spending per veteran has increased to $ 2 , 700 per veteran . 
i think it is appropriate to notice the rapid rise in veterans spending . 
so we are funding priorities . 
this budget , although restraining nondefense , non-homeland security discretionary spending , and taking on mandatory government programs and finding savings , although slight , we are finding savings in those programs that will enable us to keep continuing to cut taxes and enable us to avoid raising taxes at the same time . 
mr. chairman , as i said , i thank the gentleman from north carolina ( mr. watt ) xz4004240 for offering this budget alternative . 
i respect what the gentleman is trying to do , but we have different ways of achieving the same result of funding the priorities and helping the american people . 
