Date: 2014-04-10
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. I yield myself as much time as I may consume. It has been a good debate on the floor of the House over the last couple of days. The question boils down to. what are our countrys priorities. what are our countrys values? We believe we should be focused right now on growing opportunity and growing jobs. That is what our budget does. The Congressional Budget Office tells us that the House Republican budget will actually slow down job growth and slow down economic activity over the next couple of years. We invest in our infrastructure to keep America going. Their budget actually has the transportation trust fund go insolvent later this year. We continue to build ladders of opportunity so more people can prosper in this country. The Republican budget protects tax breaks for folks at the very. very top. in fact. provides millionaires with a onethird cut in their tax ratethey do thatbut they cut our investment in early education. in K through 12. We actually increase. we increase our early investment education. We think our kids future is the most important thing for the future growth of this country. We protect our commitments to seniors. We dont reopen the prescription drug doughnut hole. we do not end the Medicare guarantee. and yes. we significantly bring down the deficits and stabilize the debttoGDP ratio in the out years. We dont do it by playing games. We dont say we are going to get rid of the Affordable Care Act and then rely on all the revenue and all the savings from the Affordable Care Act to pretend to hit balance in the out years. As I said earlier. we make sure we learn from our mistakes. In the 16day shutdown. which was totally unproductive and totally unnecessary and all part of an effort to get rid of the entire Affordable Care Act. a lot of Americans got hurt. including our veterans who are on the edge. So we do in this budget what every veteran organization asked this Congress to do: we made sure we advancefund those appropriations so that next time. God forbid. someone in this House thinks it is a good idea to shut down the government. at least those who served our country are not put at risk in terms of getting the medical and other support they need. So yes. we invest in our veterans. we invest in our kids future. we maintain our commitments to seniors. and we do that by asking the most powerful and the most privileged special interests to contribute a little bit more as we grow our economy through commonsense bipartisan immigration reform. If you want an America that is going to grow and prosper as one country. where we respect our individual freedoms and liberty and entrepreneurship but also recognize that there are some things that history has taught us we do better by working together. which is what has made us a world economic power. then support the Democratic budget. If you want to continue to support and protect the special interests at the very top on some trickle down theory. that that will help everybody else. then vote for the Republican budget. because that is what they do at the expense of the rest of the country and at the expense of economic growth and prosperity for every American. Vote "yes" for jobs. opportunity. and security. Vote for the Democratic budget. Mr. Chairman. I yield back the balance of my time.