Chris Van Hollen: “The American public does have a right to know. I don't know how many times we have to say this on the floor of this…”

“The American public does have a right to know. I don't know how many times we have to say this on the floor of this House: We passed virtually the identical bill 30 days ago, approximately, and I'm not objecting to this bill. People have a right to know. We should have transparency. We should reduce the deficit, and this bill does nothing to reduce the deficit. What we need to do is make sure that we get our deficits under control, that we stabilize the debt, and that we make smart choices for the people in this country. Yes, there is a difference of opinion. We believe that as part of reducing the deficit, we should make targeted smart cuts, but we should also cut some of those tax loopholes. Now the gentleman mentioned that we passed a tax increase on $600 billion over the next 10 years. That's right; we finally said, for higher income earners, you're going to go back to paying the same rates as you were during the Clinton administration. But the gentleman suggested that budget history began on January 1 of this year. We were all here--not everybody, but most of us--when we passed the Budget Control Act in the summer of 2011. What did we do in that act? We capped spending--$1.5 trillion in spending reductions. That was the right thing to do. Now we've done $600 billion in revenue. So I think most people can do the math on this.…”