Date: 2011-04-14
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman. everyone in this Chamber loves America and everybody in this Chamber wants to preserve the dynamism of this country and American exceptionalism. We also all agree that we have to reduce our deficits in a steady and predictable way. The question is how we do that. and we have very different views of how we should do that. Later this evening and tomorrow. we will debate a Democratic alternative budget which will strengthen our economy. promote job growth. and decrease the deficit in a steady. predictable and responsible way. but the Republican budget is the wrong choice for America. I urge every American to read this budget because if you do. no amount of spin can hide the fact that this is a wrong turn for America. It is a yellow brick road for the already prosperous. but its a dead end for the rest. Just today. we had an analysis come out from the former economic adviser to JOHN MCCAIN when he was running for President. Mark Zandi. the chief economist at Moodys Analytics. who said that the Republican plan will cost Americans 1.7 million jobs by the year 2014. with 900.000 jobs lost next year. And the Republican budget violates the warning from the bipartisan commission that we need to do the cuts and the deficit reduction in a responsible way. The cochairs of the Presidents fiscal commission stated that the Republican budget "falls short of the balanced. comprehensive approach that we need for a responsible plan." They are absolutely right. It is not balanced. it is a totally onesided approach to deficit reduction. Because when you sweep away all the soothing. sweetsounding talk of reform. at its core this Republican budget is not bold. In fact. its the same old formula of increasing tax breaks to the very wealthy in this country and to the special interests. like Big Oil. at the expense of the good of the rest of the country. except this time its the same old plan on steroids. We all know that to govern is to choose. and the choices made in the Republican budget are wrong for America. It is not bold to give tax giveaways to the oil companies and executive board rooms while slashing investments in our kids classrooms. in scientific research. and in critical infrastructure for this country. It is not courageous to provide additional tax breaks for millionaires while ending the Medicare guarantee for seniors and sticking seniors with the cost of the rising health care. It is not visionary to reward corporations that ship American jobs instead of products overseas while we terminate health care for tens of millions of Americans here at home. It is not brave to give Governors a blank check of Federal taxpayer money and a license to cut support for seniors and nursing homes. individuals with disabilities. and lowincome kids on Medicaid. And its not fair to give yet another tax break to the very wealthy and ask middleincome Americans to pay for it. Yet. if you read the Republican budget. those are the choices they make. We ask. where is the shared sacrifice? We have American men and women putting their lives on the line as we speak in Iraq and Afghanistan while others hide their income in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland and refuse to pay their fair share to support our Nation. That is not right. The pattern is clear: first you cut taxes for special interests and the very wealthy. and then mathematically what happens? Yeah. when you do that. the deficits go up. You drive up the deficit. and then you say. well. weve got to handle thisnot by going back and asking the folks at the very top to do more. but by cutting investments for working families and violating our commitments to seniors and others. Let me turn to the Republican plan for Medicare because what the Republican plan does is it ends the Medicare guarantee. It forces seniors to go into the private insurance market and have to deal with the rising costs of health care that they face there. and the seniors have to eat that cost. And since the chairman raised this specifically in his opening statement. I would like to just take a look at this chart based on the numbers from the Congressional Budget Officeand the President did mention this in his speech yesterday. What this shows is what happens to Medicare under the Republican budget versus current Medicare and how much of the increased cost will now be shifted to seniors instead of Medicare. As you can see. compared to current Medicare. senior citizens are going to have to pay more than $6.000 on top of what they would have had to pay in the year 2022. And the problem gets worse and worse over time so that by the time youre out in the year 2030. youre talking about in the range of $11.000 more paid by seniors. Now. let me say this. One of the talking points weve heard from our colleagues on the other side of the aisle is. Dont worry. seniors. were just giving you the same health care deal Members of Congress have. Thats not true. What Members of Congress have is whats called a fair share deal agreement. just as other Federal employees do and as many employees around the country do where the risk of rising premiums is shared. So for every dollar increase in premiums. the Federal Government puts in 72 cents. thereabouts. and the Member of Congress or the Federal employee puts in the rest. But the point is. no matter how fast the costs go up. you share that risk equally. Thats not what happens in the Republican plan. Theres much more to talk about. but let me just say that we welcome this debate. Fundamentally. this is a debate about choices for our country. and as the bipartisan fiscal commission said. the choice made in the Republican budget is not balanced and it is not comprehensive. We agree. and we should reject this budget. I reserve the balance of my time.