Chris Van Hollen: “First, I would just like to respond to the chairman of the Budget Committee and point out that the Rules Committee…”

“First, I would just like to respond to the chairman of the Budget Committee and point out that the Rules Committee waived three rules to bring the Republican legislation to the floor. It couldn't waive one rule to allow a Democratic substitute to have an up-or-down vote. And the one rule you wouldn't waive is the one that rigs the process against closing special interest tax loopholes. To the chairman of the Agriculture Committee, I think everybody needs to know that the Ag Committee didn't reduce one subsidy to ag businesses--not one. Even though the overall Republican budget says it should be $30 billion, there's a bipartisan bill that would do that, but not one. Instead, they took $33 billion out of food and nutrition programs. Now, we should be very clear on this. People say that they're going to make sure that everyone who's eligible to get food stamps will. And then they say, under SNAP, suggesting that there are a lot of people who are getting it who are cheating. That's not true. All those other people are eligible. They're eligible. And it's not Democratic scare tactics saying all these people are going to lose their access to food and nutrition programs. It's the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the referee here, that was never contested by our Republican colleagues in the Budget Committee.…”