Christopher Shays: “I am struck by your talking about what happened in the last 15 months. When the President presented his plan last year…”

“I am struck by your talking about what happened in the last 15 months. When the President presented his plan last year, I remember you had already got us working on the Republican side of the aisle to start to find ways to match the President's numbers on deficit reduction with no tax increase. We spent 2 months before the President actually even began his plan. When we knew his numbers, then we started to come forward with a deficit reduction package of $500 million without a tax increase. I remember it wasn't easy at first. When we did this, some members in the caucus said why should we do this? We are not in control. But you and others felt very strongly, and I felt that some way, that it was our job to show that you could balance the budget with no tax increases, or at least meet the President's numbers with no tax increases. And we did it. The impact of that was significant, because the President came in with $3.53 of taxes for every dollar it cut in the increase in spending. And you got them to realize they had to cut more, and they did. And they got their numbers down to $1.50 of taxes for every $1 of spending cuts. What you did not say, which I wish you had said, was that when the President got his package through it was considered a great victory. He got it through by two votes. And if one Member in the House had not voted, it would have been a tie vote and would not have passed.”