Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I wish to add my thanks to the chairman of the Armed Services Committee and the leader in this effort to close some of these abusive and unnecessary and wasteful loopholes. I also thank Senator Whitehouse and Senator McCain for their leadership in this effort, which is about fundamental fairness.

Most importantly, let me thank Senator Murray for the hard work, the courage, the strength it has taken to put together a budget that is intensely complex, dealing with issues that are hugely challenging, and craft a solution that presents a vision for the future of America that is very distinct and different, as well as very preferable to the one presented by the House budget. The House insists on a cuts-only approach and absolutely refuses to consider new revenue. The solution crafted by Senator Murray and her committee has opted for balance and compromise--two words that unfortunately are too often missing from our deliberative process.

Our budget achieves $1.85 trillion in new deficit reduction, with an even mix of $975 billion of new revenue and $975 billion in responsible spending cuts. That is a real achievement.

We are here today to talk about cutting loopholes, tax breaks, giveaways to people who don't need them and corporations that don't deserve them. Their existence undermines the fundamental fairness of our Tax Code.

The fact that more money goes to tax avoidance than to tax revenue is a fundamental, searing indictment of our Tax Code, and it is the reason there is resistance to people paying their fair share. Again and again and again, what I hear from citizens, from taxpayers, from residents of the State of Connecticut is, I would be willing to pay my fair share as long as others are required to do the same.

Fairness is at the core of our Tax Code. It is the reason why voluntary compliance is so important and why it happens--because people rely on its fundamental fairness.

The offshoring of profits and ending those offshore tax abuses that have been described so eloquently by Senator Levin and Senator Whitehouse is absolutely necessary to a sense of fairness in our Tax Code. As important as the additional money is the sense of equity it would bring to our Tax Code.

Likewise, fair and effective tax enforcement is critical. I know as an enforcer of civil laws for 20 years as attorney general it is important to a sense of fairness in our society, and effective enforcement requires resources. It requires tightening rules relating to tax shelter promoters; stiffening penalties for the aiders and abettors--the ones who enable violations of our tax laws and tax evasion; and modernizing Federal tax lien registration. We are fond of saying in this body that the devil is in the details. Here, the devil is in nonenforcement of those detailed regulations and rules that require compliance.

Similarly, ending excessive corporate tax deductions or stock options and closing some of the loopholes that apply to derivatives are fundamental to fairness and to preserving a sense that everybody is bearing a fair share of the burden. Those rules that presently permit evasion and abuse must be ended. The consequences are huge because they apply to the vision of the future that each of these rules and budgets contemplate.

The wasteful tax loopholes mean losses in revenue, and those, in turn, mean we must cut programs as a consequence. In my home State of Connecticut alone--just to show some of the consequences of the House or Ryan budget--47,000 seniors would pay more for prescription drugs next year, and that means $828 for each of them, on average, more in the cost of drugs in 2014 alone and more than $13,000 over the next decade.

The House budget would cut $8.73 billion in funding Connecticut receives for nursing care and other health care services for seniors and the disabled, putting at risk tens of thousands of Connecticut seniors who rely on Medicaid for their long-term health care needs.

I have sponsored the Bring the Jobs Home Act, which many others have cosponsored, which would close that loophole for corporations that send jobs and ship employment overseas. We need to bring those jobs back.

The House budget would double down on job-killing cuts to infrastructure and research and economic development programs. The Economic Policy Institute has found that these cuts would cost Connecticut over 24,000 jobs in 2014 alone.

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Our economic recovery is fragile. Job-killing cuts must be stopped.

I thank Senator Levin for his leadership on this issue.

I yield the floor.

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