Baseline Reform Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

In response to the gentleman from Texas, I think it is important that we be careful in the rhetoric we use on these subjects. It is incorrect to say that, by law, there is an automatic increase in the Federal budget and that that applies to the discretionary budget. That is absolutely incorrect.

What we are talking about here and what this bill concerns is the CBO baseline that is used. The CBO reflects inflation in that baseline as does every serious budgeting professional and forecaster and economist in the real world, but they don't do it because the law has told them they have to or because Democrats have told them they have to; they do it because that is what serious budget forecasters do. They know that inflation is a reality, and they believe that the baselines they use and the projections and forecasts they use should reflect that reality. I think that is an important clarification. We choose to budget and to spend at the level that we choose to do so each and every year. What the CBO does as a matter of baseline projections is a different matter.

At this time, Madam Speaker, I would like to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Bishop), a distinguished member of the Education and the Workforce Committee.

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Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

This bill does not create any jobs. It doesn't save one dime. It doesn't reduce spending. It simply asks the CBO to pretend that the reality of inflation does not exist. It is not a serious proposal. It is a bill that was heard and passed largely on party lines in the last Congress. It didn't go anywhere. It is not going to go anywhere this time either. This is political theater at a time when we really need to be talking in this institution about the real needs of America.

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