James Hill: “introducing a trillion dollar tax bill without a budget framework is like going to the racetrack and putting all your…”

“introducing a trillion dollar tax bill without a budget framework is like going to the racetrack and putting all your money on the long shot. The leaders of this House only win their wager if the Congressional Budget Office's surplus projections are accurate for the next 10 years, but even CBO says it would not bet on its own budget numbers. CBO says its surplus estimate for the next year has a 50 percent chance of being wrong by more than $97 billion. For years 6 through 10, CBO says the odds are even longer. This is a big problem, because two-thirds of the $5.6 trillion surplus are supposed to materialize in years 6 through 10. Mr. Speaker, almost 20 years ago Congress made another gamble on the projected budget surpluses and it lost. That is exactly the way then- Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker described the 1981 tax cut. He called it a riverboat gamble. We lost enough money on that bet. Let us pass a budget resolution before we take up tax and spending bills.”