Chris Van Hollen: “I thank my colleague. Madam Speaker, there is a little pattern emerging here. First we had our Republican colleagues…”

“I thank my colleague. Madam Speaker, there is a little pattern emerging here. First we had our Republican colleagues walk out of the Biden talks. And then twice they walked out of talks with the President. And then they totally rejected a proposal put forward by the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell. And last night they said ``no'' to the proposal put forward by their own Speaker. And that brings us to where we are today. In order to accommodate the more extreme elements of the Republican Caucus, they had to change the bill once again. Now what they are proposing is that ultimately we turn budget authority over not to the elected Representatives but to a Federal judge who would ultimately decide how we're going to deal with our budget. You talk about passing the buck, you talk about not taking responsibility, now is the time to come together to come up with a reasonable compromise, not to move the parties far apart. The last point I want to make with regards to the deficit: We want to make sure that we have a plan, a balanced plan, to reduce the deficit. I'm just waiting for my colleagues on the other side to say that they're willing to get one penny from eliminating taxpayer subsidies to the oil companies or closing corporate loopholes for jets--just one penny--for the purpose of deficit reduction. Then we'll know that they're serious about that. The President has said let's do $3 in spending cuts and $1 in revenue.…”