Xavier Becerra: “Budgets are a reflection of our values and our priorities: jobs, economic growth, fiscal discipline, fairness, shared…”

“Budgets are a reflection of our values and our priorities: jobs, economic growth, fiscal discipline, fairness, shared sacrifice. Most Americans talk about this all the time when they're at their kitchen table. It's not that difficult. So quite honestly the question before us is not whether to reduce the deficit, but how. Budgets involve tradeoffs. The Republican budget that is presented to us today along with this Republican Study Committee alternative would say that we must continue the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans in this country. We must continue to give a millionaire about $130,000 in tax cuts in this budget even though we are facing the largest deficits our country has experienced. At the same time, the choice that this Republican budget makes is to say to seniors, We must end Medicare as we know it; we must eliminate the guarantee that you, as a senior, have had for more than 35 years under Medicare to choose your doctor and your hospital; and we must impose upon you an additional $6,000 in health care costs because these deficits are so big. So as the President said a couple of days ago, under the Republican budget, you would need to take 22 seniors paying 6,000 additional dollars to cover the costs of giving one millionaire in this country the $130,000 tax cut. We must do that under the Republican budget. Democrats have said we must not do that. We must do this differently. And we must invest again in our people.…”