Christopher Shays: “The bottom line to this issue, though, is that revenues are increasing significantly, and the challenge is that expenses…”

“The bottom line to this issue, though, is that revenues are increasing significantly, and the challenge is that expenses are increasing even at a greater amount. We need to start to slow the growth of spending. I am seeing where the gentleman from Michigan is, and basically the minority has accused us of, say, cutting the earned income tax credit, which is a tax credit that was designed to help working poor, transition them to a point where they are actually making enough to not be poor. They do not pay any taxes, they actually get a credit back from the Government. We are expanding that program. But this is what we are being told. We are being told that we are cutting the earned income tax credit, that we are cutting the School Lunch Program, that we are cutting the student loan program, that we are cutting Medicaid and Medicare. That is what we are being told, and they call it a cut. Our bill increases the earned income tax credit from $19 to $25 billion. It increases the School Lunch Program from $5.2 to $6.8 billion in the seventh year. The student loan program, and that is the one that really gets me, is going from $24 to $36 billion. Only in this place and in this city when you spend 50 percent more, it is $24 billion now, we are going to add $12 billion to be $36 billion in the seventh year, do people call it a cut.”