Date: 2012-12-20
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Thank you. Mr. Speaker. The chairman of the Budget Committee began his closing remarks by saying. "Lets take a step back." Unfortunately. Mr. Speaker. thats exactly what this package of bills does for the country. it takes us many steps back. And the reason it takes us back is because the Speaker of this House has backed out of negotiations with the President for a balanced approach to dealing with our deficit and making sure that we accelerate economic growth and job creation in this country. The issue has never been whether or not to reduce our longterm deficit. The question has always been: How? And how you do it reflects your priorities. The President has made clear his priority is not to give higher income individuals another tax break relative to what would happen if we went over the fiscal cliff. and yet thats exactly what this package of proposals would do. Ive used this chart a couple of times. Mr. Speaker. Im going to use it again. and with good reason. because no one has or can dispute the facts in this chart. The reality is. while folks who earn more than $1 million a year. about 402 families in this countryand God bless them. we want people to keep making more money. the issue here is shared responsibility for reducing our deficitunder the Republican plan relative to the Senate bill. theyre going to get a $50.000 average tax break. while over 25 million Americans will see an increase in their tax obligation compared with where we are today. We dont think thats balanced. Thats not even balanced within their tax plan. At the same time. they bring to the floor today a bill. a sequestration bill that. by the way. leaves in place the cuts to Medicare and then cuts support for kids on food stamps and children under the health insurance bill. groups that. frankly. would be protected if we went over the fiscal cliff under current law. So. Mr. Speaker. this is a question of priorities. So what this motion to recommit does is say. you know what. we think its time that we end the taxpayer giveaways and subsidies to the Big Oil companies. My goodness. why should all of us be providing them one more round of tax breaks? Gas prices are high. their profits are going through the roof. taxpayers should not be subsidizing that. And we certainly shouldnt be subsidizing that when we have before us a bill that removes about 300.000 kids from the school lunch program and removes about 300.000 kids from the Childrens Health Insurance Program in the year 2015. according to the Congressional Budget Office. So. again. this is about priorities. What this very simple motion to recommit does. in addition to asking that oil companies no longer keep getting taxpayer subsidies. is just to disclose to the public what the impact of these cuts will be on citizens throughout this country. It says. tell us what the impact of the Medicare and Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program cuts will be on kids and others in our congressional districts. At the very least. we should know what were doing. The Congressional Budget Office had told us. but anybody who thinks that that independent. nonpartisan group has its projections wrong. well get a real world check. So this is simple accountability. This is understanding what the impact of your vote will be. So I would hope that our colleagues would recognize that at this time. when oil companies are doing just great. they dont need welfare from the U.S. Government. We should also understand very clearly what the impact of these cuts will be because the projections by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office are that its going to have a very serious negative impact on kids health. as well as in terms of the support under the preventive health fund for women around the country. So. for example. with the $10 billion cut to the prevention fund. 326.000 women would not get breast cancer screenings. 284.000 women would not get cervical cancer screenings they are slated to receive in 2013. These cuts have real impact. So the question is not whether to make cutswe have to make cuts. The President has put $1.2 trillion in additional cuts forward on top of the $1 trillion. Were just asking for balance. Were asking for common sense in our priorities. I urge people to support the motion to recommit. I yield back the balance of my time.