Rob Woodall: “I thank my chairman for yielding me the time. It has been a great privilege to work with Chairman Tom Price on the…”

“I thank my chairman for yielding me the time. It has been a great privilege to work with Chairman Tom Price on the Committee on the Budget. I was down here earlier bringing the rule to the floor, but I was trying to defend a rule that was going to allow all the ideas. Now we actually get to talk about which ideas are the good ideas. That is why I wanted to come down here and speak. I heard my friend from Maryland speak with such passion and conviction on Medicaid, and I share his passion, and I know his conviction to be true. But if we do nothing, interest payments alone are going to be larger than the entire Medicaid budget. We have six different budgets that we can consider down here on the House floor. Three of them balance; three of them never, ever do. I was listening to what the chairman said earlier. He said: I do not concede any of the discussion from the other side about whether or not this budget balances or not. But the point is at least we are trying. Even if you are right that the numbers don't work out, even if the economic circumstances change, we have as a goal ending this wasted taxpayer resource, which is interest to our creditors. It dwarfs everything--everything. It is larger than the defense budget. It is larger than the Medicaid budget. It is five times larger than the education budget, five times larger than the transportation budget.…”