Chris Van Hollen: “I'll end where we started today, which is to say that our Republican colleagues are playing a very dangerous game with…”

“I'll end where we started today, which is to say that our Republican colleagues are playing a very dangerous game with the economy and with jobs. What this legislation before us says is that unless we graft onto the Constitution a preference for their way of addressing the budget deficit, unless we do that, they will prevent the United States from paying its bills, with all the terrible economic consequences for American families. So let's see what it is that they're demanding in exchange for letting the economy go. It's the same old plan that we saw in the House before. It does end the Medicare guarantee, it slashes Medicaid, it cuts education, and it protects special interest tax loopholes. But what makes this particularly egregious, what should, I think, upset every American, is they're trying to engineer those changes through the Constitution. We keep hearing this is just a plain old balanced budget amendment; 49 out of 50 States have it. Not true. This would put into the Constitution of the United States, embed in our Constitution, a provision that makes it easier to cut Medicare or Social Security or education, a 50 percent vote; but if you want to cut a special interest tax loophole--I don't care whether it's oil and gas subsidies, corporate jet, you name it--that a lot of Washington lobbyists work overtime to get inserted into our Tax Code and which amounts to spending through the Tax Code, if you want to do that, you need a two- thirds vote.…”