Hearing of the House Committee on the Budget - Opening Statement of Rep. Van Hollen, Hearing on Restoring the Trust for Vulnerable Americans

Hearing

"Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank all the witnesses for being here today to talk about what we can do to improve the situation of struggling Americans and many Americans who remain in poverty today.

"I think we would all agree that the best anti-poverty program is a job, and a job that pays a livable wage -- meaning a job that allows someone who's working full time to support their family. And unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we've not gotten support for some of the measures we've put forward to do exactly that.

"As you know, Mr. Chairman, many of the people in poverty today are working hard. And today in the United States of America you can work full time all week long, all year long, and still only… earn an income that puts you below the federal poverty level. So, we would welcome the opportunity to work with you to change that. We've put forward specific proposals. One of them is to increase the minimum wage, which hasn't kept up with inflation and cost of living since President Truman was President. I think it's a scandal that you can work full time, all year round, and not make enough to support a family in the United States, and we could do something about that.

"In this Committee, the former Chairman put forward a proposal to increase the Earned Income Tax Credit for childless adults. We think that's a good idea. President Obama has embraced it. We put that in the budget we proposed here in Congress. The Republican budget did not include that proposal. We believe that we should address the issue of childcare and provide quality, affordable childcare, because so many people, in order to go to work, need to make sure that their kids are in a safe place and cared for. And yet, by the time they pay their childcare bill, they're having to put aside half of what they earn. So that's why we've proposed increased investments in childcare, including increasing the child dependent care tax credit so it's available to more people and making it partly refundable.

"We've also put forward proposals to change the tax code to incentivize corporations to pay higher wages to their employees. Right now, corporations can take a tax deduction for the bonuses, the million-dollar-plus bonuses they pay to their CEOs and executives. You know, we have a tax code now that provides breaks for corporate jets. We have a tax code that provides this carried interest tax break for hedge fund managers. Why not say that if you're a corporation and you want a tax deduction for those CEO bonuses, at the very least, you should be increasing the pay of your employees. If you're paying big bonuses to the executives, at least give your employees a pay increase.

"Those are things we could do to not only generate more jobs, but make jobs pay living wages. Unfortunately, we've not gotten any kind of collaboration on those efforts. Instead, what we see, Mr. Chairman, is an effort to go after the safety net that provides some help and support for families that are working and still trying to make ends meet. You're right -- we can do a lot better when it comes to the poverty level. We need to do a lot better. But you don't do better by cutting food and nutrition programs. You don't do better by cutting the Medicaid program by close to a trillion dollars. You don't do better by doing all those things -- you actually make the situation worse.

"The reality is -- and this was well documented just over a year ago -- the reality is those programs are keeping 40 million Americans out of poverty today. So, getting rid of them makes the problem worse, not better. And what's really unfortunate is -- despite all the talk in this Committee about the importance of reducing the deficit and the debt -- when it comes time to do it, the answer always seems to be cut food and nutrition programs. Cut Medicaid. Never cut a special interest tax break. Never cut the benefit for hedge fund managers. Because the Grover Norquist pledge that has been signed by most of our Republican colleagues here in the House says, oh no, you can't do that. You can't close a single tax break, not one, for the purpose of reducing the deficit. So go ahead and cut food and nutrition programs. Go ahead and cut Medicaid. And at the same time say, we're not going to pass an increase in the minimum wage.

"Mr. Chairman, that doesn't make sense to us. We've got to come together. We can do better, but this is not the way to do better."

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