Debbie Wasserman Schultz: “Because the third-party validators that we use on this floor is for the purpose of showing that others who have fact…”

“Because the third-party validators that we use on this floor is for the purpose of showing that others who have fact- checked, experts who have fact-checked what is going on internally in this institution report on what they see. And so if we are going to talk about accuracy and clarity, it is the third-party validators who the American people are going to listen to. You know, quite honestly, although I really feel privileged to be able to come and join you on this floor every night, a lot of people would just chalk up what they say and what we say on the floor as noise, you know, as partisan noise. And so third-party validators are important. And so let us talk about what USA Today said about who is in charge and what they are responsible for and what they could have done about it. This is just last week, February 21, about 10 days ago. USA Today editorial. The title of the editorial was Who is Spending Big Now: The Party of Small Government. Tax cuts, they say, force hard decisions and restrain reckless spending. The last time we looked, according to USA Today, the last time we looked, though, Republicans controlled both Congress and the White House. They are the spenders. In fact, since they took control in 2001 they have increased spending by an average of nearly 7\1/2\ percent, 7\1/2\ percent a year, more than double the rate in the last 5 years of Clinton-era budgets. I mean, the truth hurts.”