Date: 2015-03-25
Speaker: TOM PRICE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Georgia

Mr. Chairman. I do want to commend my Democratic colleagues for coming forward with a budget. It is important to have contrasting visions that are able to be debated here on the floor of the House. I am not surprised. but I am oftentimes amused by the misinformation and the distortion that comes from our colleagues on the other side. Mr. Chairman. we have had now three separate budgets that have been offered by our friends on the other side: first. the Progressive Caucus budget. then the CBC budget. now the Democratic Caucus budget. I want to have our colleagues focus on the comparison. side by side. of this budget that is being offered to that of the Republican budget. A Balanced Budget for a Stronger America. These numbers on the far column there of the Democratic budget identify specific areas in their budget and how they compare to the Republican budget. In taxes. how do they compare in taxes? You hear our friends talking about taxes all the time. $1.9 trillion in new taxes-$1.9 trillion. Spending. what do they do on spending? $6.3 trillion in spending over the Republican budget. A Balanced Budget for a Stronger America. What about deficits? $4.6 trillion in increased deficits. Debt? $4.7 trillion in increased debt over a 10year period of time. What do they do to defense in these perilous times in our Nation and in our world? Decrease spending on defense compared to the Republican budget by $314 billion. You would think with all of those taxes and all of that spending that you would get to balance. you would get to a point where the revenue that is coming into the Federal Government would equal the spending that is going out. but their budget never. ever. ever. ever balances. I guess they take their lead from the President. So lets take a little closer look at a couple of these issues. Tax increases. Taxes. taxes. taxes. taxes. that is what we hear from the folks on the other side. After raising over a trillion dollars in taxes for ObamaCare and forcing through over $600 billion in new taxes during the fiscal cliff discussion and debate. now they are calling for another massive tax increase of $1.9 trillion. Even with these huge tax increases already enacted into law. the Democrat budget never balancesever. ever. everbecause it refuses to reduce spending. and it refuses to address the biggest drivers of our debt. Their substitute calls for more taxes on families. more taxes on small businesses. Even though. Mr. Chairman. the Congressional Budget Office tells us that the Federal revenue collection will exceed. will be greater than the 40year average levelabout 17.4 percent of gross domestic product. every year greater than that number. every year for the next decadethat is not enough for our friends on the other side. In other words. Washington is on track to collect more taxes from the American people than it ever has in the past. but Democrats want Washington to take even more. As has been said so many times. Washington doesnt have a revenue problem. we have got a spending problemand there is no doubt about it that the American people understand that. The Democratic budget rhetoric claims to raise an additional $1.9 trillion by "rejecting tax breaks for the wealthy and closing special interest loopholes." Look out. ladies and gentlemen. What that clever rhetoric really means is that they are going to hit small businesses with even more taxes. Why? Why is that? Because the majority of small businesses. nonC corp businesses. the majority of those businesses that create jobs around this country pay taxes under the individual income system. That is how they do it. That is who those folks want to punishthe job creators. These tax hike ideas end up impacting successful small businesses all across this country. As I mentioned. they represent the job creation engine of our economy. over 60 percent of the jobs being createdtwo -thirds of the jobs being createdfor all private sector jobs generated by small businesses. So. despite the facts that we present. the Democrat budget would continue the failed policy of Washington picking winners and losers. rewarding their friends. punishing their political enemies. distorting the free market. further distorting an already overly complex Tax Code. all of which would have disastrous results of subsidizing private investors profits and socializing what should be private investors losses. So. more taxes. What about spending cuts? Any spending cuts? Despite their call for a balanced approach. the Democrat budget never. ever balances. In fact. it doesnt even come close to passing the Democrats prior test of balance. which they defined as having equal parts tax increases and spending reductions. Interestingly. the Democrats continue to be moving away from their previously described balanced approach. Under this approach. their latest budget. a balanced approach appears to be requiring both tax increases and spending increases. In fact. the Democratic substitute would increase spending by $855 billion more than just staying on our current path. In other words. their substitute contains zero spending reductions and contains $1.9 trillion in tax increases and $855 billion in spending increases. It is not the direction the American people desire. clearly. not the direction that gets on a path to balance. not the direction that get us on a positive solution to addressing the challenges that we face. A Balanced Budget for a Stronger America is the direction in which we need to go. and I reserve the balance of my time.