Date: 2014-04-09
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chair. I yield myself the balance of my time. The gentleman just mentioned Social Security Administration funds for operations. Let me tell you. if you vote for the House Republican budget today. you are going to be decimating the funds available for those kind of ongoing operations because they cut that part of the budget that allows for the administration of the Social Security Administration and cut it big time. So it is interesting to hear my colleague talk about the Presidents budget in that regard. but I would suggest he look at the impact from the House Republican budget. Let me just say. Mr. Chair. I indicated earlier that we with like to vote on the Presidents policies. We have been waiting a very long time to vote on comprehensive immigration reform. In fact. we filed a discharge petition to do it. We would like to vote on increasing the minimum wage. We filed a discharge petition to do it. We would like to vote on emergency unemployment insurance. We filed a discharge petition on that. The Speaker of the House has refused to allow democracy to work. Now. we have what is clearly a stunt. As I said. I am a supporter of the Presidents budget. I support the Presidents policy. I think it is a stunt. The White House recognizes it as a stunt. We will have. tomorrow. the Democratic alternative that has the support of the White House. I still find it incredulous that our colleagues are telling us that they really are giving 10 minutes per side of debate to what they claim is before us. which is 2.000 pages. right? These are our colleagues that went around the country calling for transparency and accountability. They really want Members to vote on something that the Congressional Budget Office has not had a chance to score? Apparently. they are going to do it next week because they are in the process of looking through the Presidents budget. So even if this were on the level. which it is not. you cant compare apples to apples without the Congressional Budget Office analysis. So I am so glad our Republican colleagues were able to speedread through this thing in 10 minutes and make judgments. The good news for them is that is not the Presidents budget either. So lets not play games. Lets recognize that. as we debate these budgets. we are debating the countrys priorities. We are debating very different priorities. Once again. the House Republican budget chooses to double down on rigging the rules for very powerful special interests. If you are a millionaire. you are going to get a onethird cut in your tax rate under the House Republican budget. You know who is going to pay for it? Middleincome taxpayers will have to pay more to finance that tax break for the wealthyin fact. $2.000 for a family with kids. on average. You know who else is going to have to pay for that? Our kids education. Early Head Start. Head Start. K12. college kids. You know what else is going to pay? Our competitiveness as a country because we are not going to make the investments that. historically. have helped power this country forward in the area of transportation and infrastructure. Republican budget. you know when the trust fund goes insolvent? This summer. Nothing in there. nothing in the Republican budget to address that issue. just swoosh. down the tubes insolvent. Hopefully. we will have an opportunity to actually vote on the Presidents proposal. as I said. to eliminate some of the special interests tax breaks that encourage companies to move jobs overseas. close those down. so we can invest in our transportation right here at home. So lets not fall for this political stunt. I mean. I have to believe that if my colleagues seriously wanted a debate a 2.000page document. that even they would agree that it merits more than 10 minutes. even they would agree that we should have the benefit of the Congressional Budget Offices analysis before we ask this body to take on that responsibility. So lets not fall for sham. Lets reject the amendment by Mr. MULVANEY. and then. tomorrow. lets vote in support of the Democratic alternative. I yield back the balance of my time.