Chris Van Hollen

The Republican budget would actually undermine those important investments.

First of all, the House Republican plan would actually put the brakes on our economy.

It has been very disappointing. What has been disappointing is the response from some of our Republican colleagues.

What that means is that either the Republican budget would not be in balance if they actually did what they say they want to do with respect to tax rates and tax policies.

So where they would drop the top rate all the way down to 25 percent, have you seen any plausible scenario where you can do that in a deficit-neutral manner without increasing the tax burden on middle income families?

The president's pointed out in this budget, that very wealthy individuals continue to disproportionately benefit from deductions in the tax code.

The Republican budget also assumes the amount of revenue that will come in through the tax provisions in ObamaCare, approximately a trillion dollars.

I would submit that the biggest whopper of a gimmick in this year's budget is the Republican claim that their budget actually balances in 10 years.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And Mr. Zients, I am glad that in response to the Chairman's questions on deficit reduction...

I hope this will be the beginning of a conversation, Mr. Chairman.

I will put those in there. The Speaker asked for them. We will put them in there as a sign of our willingness to meet our Republican colleagues more than halfway.

We do not think that that is the way to address our budget challenges or get our economy fully in gear.

He has, in his budget, done what he said he was going to do. He does it in a balanced way, asking for shared responsibility.

The Republican budget would actually undermine those important investments.

The House Republican plan would actually put the brakes on our economy.

I think the important thing is it meets two essential goals. First of all, it focuses on job growth and strengthening the economy.

It is now my privilege to yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from California (Ms. Pelosi), the very distinguished Democratic leader, who just returned from the Vatican and hopefully will bring some hope from the Pope, as I say.

The gentleman from Indiana just made the point that under the current Medicaid system States have lots of flexibility, including Indiana, to help bring down costs. But when you have a tight program, cutting another $820 billion is not a…

The way to save Medicare is to bring down costs overall in the health care system, not give seniors a voucher that puts all the risk on the senior, which is what the Republican approach does. I now yield 1 minute to the distinguished…

I now yield 1 minute to a distinguished new Member from Florida (Ms. Frankel).

Our budget focuses first and foremost on jobs and getting the economy growing. It does balance in the same time that the Republican budget last year balanced. And unlike the Republican budget, the main one, we do not give tax breaks to the…

The only comparison between these budgets we're debating and what's going on in Europe is that the Republican budget proposes the same European-style austerity approach that many European countries tried, and as a result, they've seen…

I now yield 2 minutes to a terrific new member of the Budget Committee, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Jeffries).

Under our budget proposal, the deficit is dropping rapidly, but we also address the jobs deficit so that we make sure more people get back to work. With respect to the Medicare trust fund, I would just point out the Affordable Care Act…

I now yield 2 minutes to another terrific new member of the Budget Committee, the gentlelady from New Mexico (Ms. Lujan Grisham).