The House Budget

Floor Speech

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Mr. REID. Mr. President, Gandhi said, ``Action expresses priorities.'' Action expresses priorities. Congressional Republicans' actions on the budget clearly demonstrate how little regard they have for the American middle class. I want to get into a few examples. Their budget proposal--the one the House is going to send to us soon--ends Medicare as we know it, replacing it with another voucher program. It takes health care away from 16.4 million Americans now insured through the Affordable Care Act. It guts Medicaid and undercuts millions of families who rely on it to fund nursing homes and other care. It cuts billions in education funding--billions--and it cuts job training and employment services for 4 million American workers. The list goes on and on.

But we know one thing their budget does not do. It doesn't cut a single tax loophole for the superwealthy to reduce the deficit. Not one. Instead, this budget is brimming with more tax breaks for the megarich--many new tax breaks. In fact, the Republican budget would drastically cut the tax bill for the average millionaire while raising taxes on the middle class. That is not just irresponsible, it is immoral.

Of course, lowering taxes for millionaires and billionaires will add to the deficit, not cut it. Republicans claim they are reducing the deficit, but that is not true. In truth, they are using mirrors and a lot of smoke in an effort to fool the American people.

House Republicans are really hiding the ball--moving the ball--claiming massive savings without explaining how. They are, for lack of a better description, cooking the books, using speculative and what they call ``dynamic scoring.'' What is dynamic scoring? This is an effort to claim they are balancing the budget. Dynamic scoring says, here is all this tax revenue and other money we are going to get and it will help significantly. The fact is everyone knows there isn't any truth to that. It is only some numbers on paper. They are relying on transparent tricks to hide their refusal to protect our military from sequestration and budget cuts. Yet Republicans say of their own budget plan, we do not rely on gimmicks or creative accounting to balance our budget.

The definition of ``gimmick'' is a concealed, devious aspect or feature of something, as a plan or a deal--a concealed, devious aspect or feature.

Well, we have a perfect example of a gimmick in the Republican budget that the House is working on and we are told they will complete. It sounds like a gimmick to me. At least one Republican from the House agrees with me. Congressman Ken Buck of Colorado said yesterday, ``It's all hooey.'' The budget is all hooey. But as Dana Milbank said in today's Washington Post, speaking of the House Republicans' plan: ``True, the budget does not rely on gimmicks. The budget is a gimmick.'' That is a direct quote.

We don't need gimmicks. We need a responsible budget and this is not a responsible budget. This is not responsible governance.

Unfortunately, though, this is the budget we have come to expect from today's Republican Party--a party that is so committed to supporting the superwealthy that they are throwing America's middle class and the military overboard.

Democrats are focused on the middle class. We want to create jobs, invest in the future, and make sure that all Americans benefit from an improving economy.

We are more than happy to work with our Republican colleagues in order to make our goals a reality. Unfortunately, helping the middle class just doesn't seem to be a priority for congressional Republicans.

Mr. President, would the Chair announce the business of the day.

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