Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentlewoman from New York for yielding.

Mr. Chair, today, we will be asked to vote on a budget resolution that should outline our priorities and our values as a nation.

But this year, House Republicans have proposed what I refer to as a ``magic budget'' that goes far beyond the sleights of hand and fiscal gimmicks that folks have grown accustomed to seeing here in Washington.

Republicans would like us to believe that their painful spending cuts will balance the budget in just 9 years. Unfortunately, the basic immutable laws of accounting contradict this claim. The Republican budget claims to save $5.5 trillion and balance the budget in just 9 years. Allow me to explain this magic budget.

The magic budget extends tax cuts for corporations and eliminates the alternative minimum tax, but it doesn't account for the $150 billion in lost revenue. This is where it gets even trickier. The Republican budget then cuts $1.1 trillion in spending without any indication of where it would come from.

It then takes a sharp turn to the right and repeals ObamaCare, but it still, amazingly, uses the $1 trillion in future revenue from ObamaCare to balance the budget by 2024.

Mr. Chairman, this is one magic budget. America deserves better.

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