Think you already pay enough to the taxman? DC Democrats Don't.

On March 29th, the House of Representatives debated and voted on the federal budget for 2008. For all the partisan bickering and wrangling, there is at least one thing that we can all agree on. Both Republicans and Democrats agree that the federal government needs to balance the budget. We just differ on the best way to do it.

The federal budget process is certainly complex, but the fact of the matter is that we are just doing what families in North Jersey do every year on a very large scale: look at the amount of money we expect to have over the next 12 months, figure out what our priorities are and decide how, where and when we will spend that money.

Balanced budgets are not a choice for families – they are a fact of life. People earn what they earn, and that is how much they can spend. Sometimes that means difficult decisions about priorities. Do we want to have dinner at a restaurant every week or a vacation with the kids at the Shore next summer?

The federal government should operate the same way, but unfortunately for overtaxed family budgets in North Jersey, the federal budget proposal passed last week does not apply the same principle. This is not a partisan issue. I have bucked my own party to implement budget and earmark reform and I have voted against Republican-crafted budgets that I felt wasted hard earned taxpayer dollars on unnecessary pet projects.

Unfortunately for taxpayers, the federal government has an option that families don’t have: the power to raise taxes instead of making difficult decisions. This budget, the first budget written by Democrats since they took power in January, added tens of billions of dollars in new spending without reducing spending in other parts of the budget. And so in order to bring the budget back into balance, they have to raise your taxes.

You may not know it yet, but March 29th could end up being one of the most expensive days in history for families in North Jersey. The Democrat budget proposal that we voted on contains the largest tax increase in United States history - $392.5 billion over the next five years.

What does that really mean for families in North Jersey? It is difficult to grasp the real-world consequences when we start talking about spending a billion here or a trillion there, so let’s take a look at what the Democrat budget proposal would do to a family of four from Bergen County earning $70,000 per year. According to a study done by the New York Times, that family saw their tax bill slashed by 20% after the Republican congress passed tax relief measures between 2001 and 2003. To roll those tax cuts back now would take around $1,500 out of that family’s budget today. Different figures from the non-partisan organization, Americans for Tax Reform, estimate that the Democrat budget would cost each New Jersey taxpayer around $3,700. Just as I have opposed every tax increase since I was elected to Congress, I opposed this one as well.

As I said before, both Republicans and Democrats understand the need to balance the budget, we just have different philosophies. In contrast to the tax-and-spend budget that was passed, my Republican colleagues and I proposed a budget that is based on three simple, common sense principles:

First, we are committed to balancing the budget by 2012 without raising your taxes.

Second, we will not sacrifice pro-growth tax relief policies that have created 7.4 million jobs since 2003 and slashed the deficit by 26% compared to this time last year.

Third, we understand that every dollar that goes into the federal budget comes out of an American family’s budget, and so every dollar must be spent wisely.

It is unfortunate that the Democrats, who campaigned long and hard last year on fiscal responsibility, have missed an opportunity to demonstrate that they understand that every dollar that we add to the federal budget has a real impact on family budgets. Families in North Jersey already pay far too much in the way of taxes, and that is why I will continue the fight for fiscal discipline so that the federal government does not take an even bigger bite out of the family budget in order to feed the bloated federal budget.