Date: 2015-03-25
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman. it is bad enough that the Republican budget uses games and gimmicks that would make Enron accountants blush with respect to their basic budget. It is not just me who says that. People. independent observers from all over the country have said that. USA Today is not a partisan newspaper. Here is what they said about the Republican budget quackery: But "pretend" is the operative word because the Republicans supposed path to balance is fanciful at best. That is USA Today. Now. why do they say that? They say that because Republicans claim in the ninth and tenth years of their budget that they have this balance. but their budget depends on revenue from the Affordable Care Act. That is the ObamaCare that they say they are repealing. It depends on savings from the Affordable Care Act. It assumes that the costs of the tax cuts that this body is enacting by the dayfor corporations and very wealthy individuals. mostlyarent happening. right? That is a whole different universe. In fact. as we heard today. they just passed. worked on a bill in the Committee on Ways and Means. they are marking it up. $280 billion more to the deficit for the benefit of 5.500 American families. 75 percent of whom have $20 millionplus estates. So their budget accounting is all wrong. In my view. their priorities and values are all wrong. too. But that same phony accounting that they are using for their big budget. now they are doing it to the defense budget as well. They are pretending that we need more in the overseas contingency account than the military leadership says it needs. In fact. they have been here testifying. saying that that is the wrong way to go. And yes. last year. as I read earlier. Republicans said the same thing in the Committee on the Budget report. They said that doing what Republicans are doing in this amendment is a backdoor loophole that undermines the integrity of the budget process. I didnt write that. Former chairman of the Committee on the Budget PAUL RYAN wrote that. So we have got budget quackery in the main part of the budget. and now we have got games with defense spending. That is just the beginning of the story because. despite all that quackery and not balancing. what they do is hit hard at working families in America. We have had this debate now over the last 2 days. The good news with the economy is things are getting better. more people are getting back to work. We have got a long way to go. but trends are good. yet people are working harder than ever and feel like they are running in place. and some falling behind. and this Republican budget just makes it harder on them. In fact. it eliminates the college tax deduction. gets rid of the bumpup in the child tax credit. and gets rid of all the Affordable Care tax credits that help people afford health care. In fact. the irony is they keep the parts of the Affordable Care Act that raise revenue and get rid of the parts of the Affordable Care Act that help people afford health insurance. What a deal. So it is an unfortunate day for the country. Mr. Chairman. and I think Members. when they look at this. will recognize that the Republican budget takes us in the wrong direction. I reserve the balance of my time.