Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2012

Floor Speech

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I remind the gentleman that what we're saying is that the top 2 percent income earners should go back to the same rates they were paying during the Clinton administration, a period of time when the economy was roaring and 20 million jobs were created. When we moved to the current rates for the folks at the very top, we saw at the end of 8 years, 2000 to 2008, a loss of over 625,000 private jobs.

Let me just say something about this Medicare issue because what the Republican plan does will result in rationing by income. Let me be clear. Seniors, you will no longer be able to choose to stay in the Medicare program. You've got to go into the private health insurance market. You're going to be given a voucher, premium, whatever you want to call it, that doesn't keep pace with rising health care costs. That means that the plan you may be able to afford may not cover the very benefits you need, and your doctor certainly may not be on that plan. So you lose your choice of doctor if you can't happen to afford the plan that they're on, or you lose your benefits. This Republican plan is rationing by the insurance industry.

With that, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur).

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, of course, the private sector is the engine of opportunity and the economy in this country. But we also know that there are some investments that no individual or corporation takes on by themselves. For example, the highway system and some of the big infrastructure, you've got 20 percent unemployment in the construction industry right now. If you're telling me that a greater investment in our infrastructure, roads, and bridges doesn't help generate job creation, then you should tell that to the folks who are looking for a job right now.

I would also point out that the same folks--the Heritage Foundation--who said that the Republican plan that we're talking about tonight was going to miraculously increase jobs are the same people who, back at the beginning of the Bush administration, predicted that those tax cuts were going to generate all sorts of jobs in the country. Here's what they predicted in blue; cut those taxes for the folks at the very top, jobs are going to go up and up and up. Here's the reality in red. We know what happened. So I would be careful about talking about how a budget is going to produce jobs.

We have an alternative budget that has the right balance between cuts and shared sacrifice and will generate jobs.

With that, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from California (Ms. Bass).

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