Date: 2013-03-19
Speaker: CAROLYN B. MALONEY (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: New York

I yield myself such time as I may consume as Im pleased to represent the Democratic point of view in this budget. We now have before this Congress the choice of two profoundly different paths forward for the American economy. One based on severe austerity for the many and deep cuts in programs for the vulnerable that is offered by Chairman RYAN and our friends from across the aisle. No new revenues are included in Mr. RYANs plan. The other proposal. offered by the Budget Committee Ranking Member CHRIS VAN HOLLEN and the Democrats. is based on a balance of targeted spending cuts. the closing of loopholes and the elimination of costly tax expenditures that benefit the very few. It uses a balance of spending cuts and new revenue. This is perhaps the most important choice that Congress will make this year. It will determine what kind of country were going to be. what kind of economy our children will inherit and what kind of place we will make for ourselves in the world. But before we examine our differences. lets look at the things we can all agree on: the longterm structural deficit needs to be addressed. On that there is no question. there is agreement. We need to spur economic growth. which is vital. Without it. theres no hope. More jobs and opportunities need to be created. The recovery is leaving too many people behind. And wasteful spending needs to be eliminated and costs need to be controlled. On these things we can all agree. All these things need doing. This is not our argument. Our disagreement is over how to do it and how long it should take. Its also helpful to remember how we got here and how far weve come under progress under the Obama administration. As you can see from this chartand I call it the "V chart"-from December of 2007 through December of 2009. the economy lost a staggering 8.7 million jobs. That red section represents what was going on at the end of the Bush administration. The blue section shows what happened when President Obama took office. You can see there was quite a turnaround. Instead of going down. we started going up and gaining jobs. In fact. there have been 36 months of private jobs gained in 36 months. During this last 3year period here. the private sector has added nearly 6.4 million jobs. Just last month. the private sector added 246.000 jobs. So weve been moving in the right direction. from the deep red valley into the hope of moving forward. and that is where we are now. The unemployment rate is down almost 2.5 percentage points from its peak in October of 2009. Our economy came very close to falling into the abyss. but since the depths of the Great Recession. as you can see from this chart. we are making progress. As you can see from the next chart. the economy has recorded 14 consecutive quarters of GDP growth. Again. we are moving in the right direction. Key sectors such as manufacturing and construction have rebounded. In 2012. the CaseShiller Home Price Indices rose by 7.3 percent. A recovery is clearly underway. But where do we go from here. and how do we speed things up? Lets look first at the proposal from Representative RYAN and the Republicans. From what I see. there are only three things wrong with it: its priorities. its math. and its vision for America. The Ryan budget is based solely on massive cuts to domestic investments. cuts to programs that service and benefit the working millions and help the most vulnerable. and cuts in tax rates to benefit the fortunate few. For many who are struggling now. the Ryan plan would lead to a slow economic death. death from a thousand cuts. It is absolutely impossible to cut your way to prosperity. The Ryan plan would make deep and painful cuts to vital domestic programs. It would change the food stamp programa program that helps millionsinto a block grant and cut its funding by $135 billion. Medicare. as we know it. would come to an end. The Ryan plan includes a voucher system that would increase outofpocket health care costs by over $5.000 per senior. Heres what the AARP had to say about the Ryan budget and Medicare: Chairman Paul Ryans proposed budget fails to address the high cost of health care and instead shifts costs onto seniors and future retirees. Removing the Medicare guarantee of affordable health coverage seniors have contributed to through a lifetime of hard work is not the answer. Cuts to Medicaid could affect as many as 60 million people annually. Half of these are children. and of the adults on Medicaid. more than twothirds are women. The Ryan plan repeals the Affordable Care Act. which would sharply cut the overall level of health care available to tens of millions. Yet. to make his budget balance. RYAN counts the $716 billion in Medicare savings from the Affordable Care Act. Its a hoax of epic proportions. Repealing the Affordable Care Act would return us to a time when insurance companies could charge women moreits called "gender rating"-just for being women. Repealing the Affordable Care Act would also eliminate the ban on discrimination against those with preexisting conditions. the ability to remain on parents health plans until age 26. and the expansion of Medicaid. Then. while tens of millions of Americans would be struggling under the harsh new austerity measures. the Ryan plan would cut the tax bills for the most fortunate. Last year. the Joint Economic Committee estimated that RYANs tax plan would lower taxes for millionaires by about $300.000 while raising taxes for individual taxpayers earning between $50.000 and $100.000 by over $4.000. How fair is that? At a time when income inequality is widely viewed as a very serious problem in our country. the Ryan plan would make it worse. The gap between the haves and the havenots would grow larger under the Ryan plan. The Ryan plan would ask tens of millions to bear additional burdenspay additional taxesand face additional hardships while it cut taxes for the fortunate few and preserved loopholes for Big Oil and spent an additional halftrillion dollars on the military over the next 10 years. Then. at the end of a decade of painful cuts. according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. the Ryan budget would have managed to actually add $5.7 trillion to the deficit. A close look at the math makes it clear that the Ryan budget cant recoup the revenue lost from its tax cuts without imposing large tax increases on middle class families. The Tax Policy Center was unwilling to speculate on where the lost revenue would come from. In addition. the Economic Policy Institute estimates that the Ryan budget would kill 750.000 jobs this year. 2 million next year. and would decrease the gross domestic product by 1.7 percentage points. The priorities of this budget are all wrong. It kills jobs. stifles growth and adds to the deficit. all while making life harder for seniors. women. children. and the most vulnerable in our society. The math of the budget just does not add up. Simple arithmetic tells us that the only way to pay for Mr. RYANs proposed tax cuts for the fortunate few is to eliminate many of the deductions that middle class families count on to pay for housing and health care and to save for their retirements. The Ryan tax plan would further burden those who are struggling by substantially lowering taxes for the most fortunateand thats not spin. Thats just plain math. The vision this budget offers of America is totally at odds with who we claim to be. Its a vision of a country where the government is indifferent to the suffering of many while only paying attention to the demands of the few. Then there is the other plan that is before us. the Democratic plan. with a balanced set of prioritiesa better vision for the future found in the budget offered by House Budget Committee Ranking Member CHRIS VAN HOLLEN. It takes a balanced approach with targeted spending and new revenues. It would cut waste. add jobs. and spur the economic growth of the economy. It would reduce the deficit by an additional $1.8 trillion without jeopardizing the recovery or harming the middle class. It includes $1.2 trillion in new revenue obtained. not by tax increases. but by closing loopholes and eliminating wasteful spending that benefits the wealthiest Americans and the largest corporations. It eliminates $4 billion in annual tax breaks to the oil and gas industry. an industry that is making profits. They dont need a tax break. In fact. they are making enormous profits. So why does the Ryan budget give them a government subsidy? The Democratic plan invests in infrastructure. education. job training. and innovation. It is designed. first and foremost. to help create jobs and to strengthen the economy. The House Democratic budget also makes critical investments in our future. $200 billion is invested in infrastructure. education. job training. and innovation. helping to create jobs and strengthen the economy. These investments include $80 billion for an education jobs initiative. $50 billion for transportation needs. and $10 billion for an infrastructure jobs bank. As Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has said many times over the past few years. simply pursuing deep cuts in the short term will slow the rate of economic growth. bring down revenues and lead to less deficit reduction. We have two paths before us. We can choose a path of austerity and indifference that will limit economic growth and increase inequality. or we can choose one of inspiration and inclusion that invests in our country and creates opportunities for everyone. I choose opportunity over austerity. I urge my colleagues to reject the Ryan budget and to support the budget offered by Mr. VAN HOLLEN and the House Democrats. I reserve the balance of my time.