On the recordFebruary 7, 2012
Again, I wish we were here debating the President's jobs plan. I wish we were focused on bringing to the floor the conference committee report so that we could provide relief to 160 million Americans through the payroll tax cut. With respect to the budget bill before us, as I indicated, it's just not ready for prime time. You would think that before undertaking a change which seems small, is very complicated, and could have lots of unintended consequences, especially with respect to things like student loans--as I've said, if we were confining this debate and this bill to things like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, I have no problem. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office already applies this methodology to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But the scope of this is much, much broader than that. It goes, as I said, to all credit programs, including student loan programs, and will, as a matter of accounting, show in the budget greater dollar outlays than will actually reflect the ongoing costs of things like student loans, again, in a systematic way. The last point I want to make, Madam Chair, is one that was raised by one of my colleagues, which is: Where do you actually draw the line when it comes to moving in the direction of this other kind of accounting?…
