Henry Waxman: “I was trying to understand the point that you were making. You said that the budget rules require that there be a tax…”

“I was trying to understand the point that you were making. You said that the budget rules require that there be a tax increase in order for there to be a tax decrease. The budget rules also require that there be some kind of spending if there were going to be an increase in the amount for entitlements like Social Security or Medicare. So what I do not understand is why, when we put a tax burden on a small business in order to raise money, that is not considered unfunded mandate in order to get some attention here in the House if the money taken from that small business is used to give, maybe, a big business a tax break, but it is considered unfunded mandate if you ask that businessman to pay more taxes and we use it to help Social Security or Medicare. I do not understand why that distinction should hold. If it is a burden on a business, then we ought to stop and take a look at it. Which is the purpose of the underlying bill?”