Chris Van Hollen: “I would remind my colleague that when President Obama was sworn in, we were losing 780,000 jobs per month--per month. We…”

“I would remind my colleague that when President Obama was sworn in, we were losing 780,000 jobs per month--per month. We were in a nosedive. It took a little while to climb out of that deep valley, but we have now had 61 consecutive months of positive job growth--12.1 million jobs, longest streak in history. So job growth is coming back. We have got a ways to go, no doubt about it. We need to do even better. That is why I don't understand a Republican budget that the Congressional Budget Office tells us will slow down economic growth in the next couple years. That is what the nonpartisan budget pros tell us: it will slow down economic growth. Our Republican colleagues say we don't have enough, and yet they have got a budget that the Congressional Budget Office says the next couple of years are going to slow it down just as we are continuing to grow at record levels. They also have a budget, as I indicated, that says to people who are out there working hard: You are going to get squeezed even harder on your take-home pay. You are working harder than ever, but you know what? We are going to actually increase the tax burden on working families. Now, let me say a little thing about this Medicare voucher plan. The way to reduce our healthcare costs is to move toward a system that rewards the delivery of value rather than volume in our healthcare system.…”