Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2015

Floor Speech

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I have focused on them; how successfully is an item of debate with myself.

I thank the ranking member for yielding.

This Republican budget, as I have said before, is an exercise in how not to achieve fiscal sustainability.

Both the Bowles-Simpson and Rivlin-Domenici bipartisan commissions determined that the responsible approach to achieving fiscal sustainability is through a combination of balanced deficit reduction and strategic investments in long-term economic growth.

The Bowles-Simpson report says: ``We must invest in education, infrastructure, and high-value research and development to help our economy grow, keep us globally competitive, and make it easier for business to create jobs.''

The chairman of the Budget Committee voted against Bowles-Simpson.

This budget disinvests in those priorities, which will help us create jobs and grow our middle class. It undercuts our ability to invest in economic competitiveness and the growth we need to secure the goal of a sustainable fiscal future.

At the same time, the Republican budget does not follow the bipartisan commission's framework for achieving deficit savings: a balanced approach that combines new revenue with spending reductions.

There are no new revenues in this budget, and its spending cuts are severe and irresponsible, cutting even deeper than the painful sequester.

As I said yesterday, GOP Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers called those sequester levels ``unrealistic and ill-conceived,'' to which the chairman then rose and said: He said that last year.

He may have said it last year, but the proposals you make are unchanged from last year, essentially; and this year, just a few days ago, he said your cuts were draconian.

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Mr. Chairman, I regret the chairman was taking my remarks personally. Of course, they were meant simply from a policy perspective of how bad the policy is, not the chairman himself, who is a wonderful individual.

In closing, let me say I urge every one of my colleagues who is troubled about our deficits and debt and who is deeply concerned about creating jobs and growing our economy to do the right thing: oppose this budget.

The chairman of the Appropriations Committee, who has called the numbers in this budget draconian, apparently intends to vote for it. Mr. Chairman, I don't understand that. If I thought, as I do, that these numbers were draconian, the only alternative I would have is to vote ``no.''

I lament the fact that we are not addressing in a bipartisan, comprehensive way putting America on a fiscally sustainable path. That would be the best economic stimulus that we could do for America. What a shame that, again, we have wasted that opportunity.

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Mr. Chair, I was sitting in my office downstairs, and I heard Mr. Brady make the extraordinary claim that it was the Pelosi leadership that led to the doubling of deficits.

I would remind the gentleman, as he ought to know and I am sure he does know, not a single economic plan was passed in 2007 or 2008 that changed the Bush economic plan, not a single bill. And to make the assertion that the deepest recession he and I have experienced, Mr. Chairman, in our lifetimes, which occurred under the Bush administration with Bush economic policies was somehow the responsibility of a Pelosi-led Congress is absolutely absurd, incorrect, and the gentleman ought to know better.

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I tell the gentleman from Texas, I do know the statistics: 800,000 jobs lost in the last month of the Bush administration; 800,000 jobs in 1 month, the worst job production since Herbert Hoover under the Bush administration.

Yes, this administration has had tough times because we inherited such a struggling, devastated economy from the Bush administration. The gentleman knows those figures are accurate, and he ought to admit those facts.

The budget deficit went up 87 percent under George Bush when he inherited a balanced budget. He inherited a balanced budget. The gentleman ought to be truthful with the American people, Mr. Chairman.

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Mr. Chairman, unfortunately, we don't have the time, but I would like to take the time at some point in time to discuss the facts with the gentleman from Texas, and I will take a Special Order out to do exactly that, to discuss the economic success of Democratic administrations and Republican administrations and bringing down the deficit.

And let me say further, I will repeat to the gentleman, no change in the Bush economic program was affected in 2007 and 2008 because George Bush was the President and would have vetoed anything we passed. So the representation to the contrary, Mr. Chairman, is inaccurate.

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