Chris Van Hollen: “Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we have had a good debate. There have been a couple of themes. One is that this bill in…”

“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think we have had a good debate. There have been a couple of themes. One is that this bill in and of itself, I think everyone acknowledges, won't save the taxpayer one penny. It doesn't do that. In order to save the taxpayer money and reduce the deficit, we have to make the tough decisions that Mr. Hoyer and Mr. Ryan mentioned. There are obviously disagreements as to how we go about doing that. We've talked about the importance of trying to make sure that as we go forward we have a budget that reflects the values and the priorities of the American people, and one where we are covering our costs. That means paying our bills. A lot of us believe that in order to do that we've got to get rid of some of the tax breaks for the folks at the very top, that we need to close a lot of the special interest loopholes. That is a very important debate. The question here is just how we put together an accurate reflection for the American people about our best guess of what I think should be a budget that shows what their taxpayer dollars will purchase in terms of goods and services. {time} 1830 It is a question of measurement. How do you measure what you're going to be able to buy for the American people or buy for our veterans 10 years from now? When you put $61 billion in the budget today, which is what we pay for veterans' health issues and for other veterans' programs in the discretionary budget--and as Mr.…”