WASHINGTON Earlier this month the House of Representatives approved the Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Resolution, a "blueprint" for our nation's fiscal priorities over the next five years.

This year's budget sets a fiscally responsible course, adhering to pay-as-you-go budget rules that require any spending increases or tax revenue decreases to be offset -- thereby not increasing the deficit. Paired with this fiscally responsible approach also come crucial investments in domestic programs that have been neglected by the Bush administration and the previous Republican majority in Congress.

Our nation's addiction to deficit spending -- the piling of debt upon debt -- must end. We have been, in effect, saddling our children and grandchildren with an economic burden that will threaten their ability to succeed financially.

Over the past seven years, the national debt has ballooned by over $4 trillion, with it projected to stand at $9.7 trillion when President Bush's current term expires. But unlike the budget the president submitted in February, which would result in one of the largest deficits in history even before including the cost of the Iraq war (which it does not), the House-passed budget achieves balance in 2012 and remains in balance in 2013, as estimated by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

IN ADDITION to being fiscally responsible, the FY '09 House budget also invests in the priorities that strengthen our nation, making good on the promise to care for our veterans, fund science and research, protect the environment, provide job training, and lift up those living on the margins in our society. The budget increases funding for our veterans by $3.6 billion next year and provides additional resources for scientific innovation, education, and social services. It rejects many of the president's proposals for devastating cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, child care assistance, first responders, and the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program -- cuts that would have been particularly devastating given the current economic downturn.

The House budget also provides for an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. For the cost of a cup of Starbucks coffee a day, the State Children's Health Insurance Program provides children in families with low and moderate incomes access to high quality, routine health care. This preventive care reduces overall health care expenditures, ensuring that the emergency room does not become the primary care provider for millions of American families.

At a time when health care costs total 16 percent of GDP and are projected to increase to 20 percent over the next decade, additional investment in access to primary and preventative care is critical -- particularly for our children and working families.

WHEN IT COMES to tax relief, fixing the alternative minimum tax (AMT) is a central tenet of the FY '09 budget. As you may know, the AMT was enacted in the 1970s in an effort to prevent the wealthiest Americans from avoiding paying any taxes. Unfortunately, it wasn't indexed to inflation and has begun encroaching on upper-middle and middle-income families in recent years.

The House budget fixes the problem, effectively providing more than 20 million middle-class families tax relief. And unlike the president's budget, which would have financed this tax relief by borrowing money from China and the Middle East through the issuance of U.S. Treasury bonds, the House budget provides relief from the AMT in a fiscally responsible manner, using pay-go rules to offset the costs.

Tough choices must be made to get our country back on firm fiscal footing. The House budget begins that process, shunning our past reliance on deficit spending in favor of paying for what we spend, when we spend it. As a moral document, the budget lays out our priorities as a compassionate, hard-working nation. By allocating funds for programs assisting those struggling to raise families in uncertain economic times, the House-passed budget makes clear that providing an equal chance to succeed or fail in life is an American value.
Jim Moran, a Democrat, represents Virginia's 8th District in the U.S. House. Contact him at (202) 225-4376 or through his Web site, http://moran.house.gov.