On the recordFebruary 2, 2011
if there is one clear message that voters sent in the last election, it is that they want Democrats and Republicans in Congress to cut out the bickering and the partisanship and to focus like a laser beam on boosting the economy, creating jobs, and reducing the deficit. So I find it absolutely astonishing that the Republicans' No. 1 priority, indeed their obsession in these opening weeks of the new Congress, is to launch bitter new partisan attacks on the new health reform law, in an attempt to repeal it in its entirety, something that would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, and add $240 billion to the deficit in the next 10 years. It would be sufficient to oppose this reckless amendment strictly on budgetary grounds. As I said, it would add $240 billion to the deficit in the first decade. Nearly $1 trillion would be added to the deficit in the second decade, if we repeal the Affordable Care Act. The sponsors of the repeal amendment have proposed no offsets whatsoever. So for all of the Republicans' crocodile tears over big budget deficits, their first action in the new Congress is to propose adding nearly $1/4 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years, and over $1 trillion in the second 10 years. The Congressional Budget Office is our only objective nonpartisan referee when it comes to budget projections. CBO has told us in no uncertain terms that the McConnell amendment, the repeal amendment, will add $240 billion to the deficit this decade.
