Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2013
Floor Speech
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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Ryan, who is an outstanding Member of this body and my friend, and who is one of the most able among us, as well as Mr. Van Hollen, who has been my close friend for many years and one of the most able among us, have just spent time thanking our staffs for the work that they have done. I share their view that our staffs have worked mightily. And, indeed, there has been much debate.
Tragically, the product we will produce today is far less than the sum of our parts in this body. It is, I would suggest to you, a product unworthy of the intellect that has been applied to it. It is a product, indeed, that I think will hurt America, not help America. It is a product that is too much politics and too little policy. It is a product of which I think this House can not be proud.
It is a product that relies on substantially undermining the security of seniors. I say that as one who has said repeatedly that in reaching a fiscally sustainable path we must deal with entitlements. We need to do so together, and we need to do so in a balanced way.
But there is no balance in this proposal. Seniors, middle class, the vulnerable, and working Americans are asked to pay the price of this agreement. And, indeed, not only are they asked to pay the price, but the best off among us is asked to do the least.
That's not the America of which we're all proud--that has worked together and sacrificed together at times, to come together to make a joint contribution to the welfare of this country.
This product is less than the sum of its parts. This product would undermine the guarantee of Medicare.
Again, we need to deal with entitlements, but not in a way, I tell my friends in this House, that undermines the guarantee of senior security as well as family security, so their children will know their parents are secure.
Ladies and gentlemen of this House, we had an agreement. I think that the gentleman from Wisconsin is an honorable man. He is my friend. I like Paul Ryan. But I am sorely disappointed, I tell my friend.
We came to having a difference of opinion on what the number ought to be for this year's budget. You had a lower number. We had a higher number. We almost took the Nation to the brink--as a matter of fact, we took it to the brink--of default.
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Mr. HOYER. We came to the brink of default in this great Nation, the most creditworthy Nation on the face of the Earth, and were downgraded as a result of failing to get to an agreement. But when we got to an agreement, it was an agreement. And if we are able to rely on one another's words, we ought to keep our agreements.
It simply said that 302(a), which simply means, for the public, that the dollars we were going to spend on discretionary spending this fiscal year coming would be $1.47 trillion. That's a lot of money, no doubt about it. Your side didn't like it, my side didn't like it, but we agreed on it.
That agreement is not carried out in this budget. How can we rely in the future on such an agreement? It asks seniors to pay the bill, the vulnerable to pay the bill, but not the wealthiest in America. It puts Medicare at risk and does not get us to where we want.
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Mr. HOYER. In fact, it adds $10 trillion, and then some magical formula that's somewhere out there, like waste, fraud, and abuse, we're going to find the money to pay for the $10 trillion in tax cuts. That's by the extension of the Bush tax cuts and the 35 to 25. Some magical way, we're going to eliminate preference items. It doesn't say which ones. It doesn't say who's going to pay the bill.
Ladies and gentlemen, we can do better. The parts in this body are very good on both sides of the aisle--good intellect, good instincts, and a love for this country. We can do better.
Let's reject this budget. Let's do some real work. Let's come together and put this country on a fiscally sustainable path without harming our people.
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