Chris Van Hollen

We have to increase revenues beyond current policy if we want to avoid very deep cuts.

The last time that our budget was balanced was back in the 2001, 2000 time period.

Let's not duck those realities. Let's follow the advice of the three other bipartisan commissions and go big.

If we are really going to address this challenge, let's recognize that if we don't deal with the revenue piece...

There are spending issues, especially in the outyears, but there is also a revenue issue.

I believe we should propose a plan of that size.

I think it is important, as we look at this challenge, to look at both sides of the equation there.

The 10-year cumulative deficit is $3.4 trillion.

We are all entitled to our own opinions, but not to our own facts.

The fastest and most effective way to reduce the deficit in the short term is to put Americans back to work.

It's modeled after the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles proposal.

Borrows from the framework of the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles proposal.

Just to be very clear, what we did was eliminate the overpayments to some of the Medicare Advantage plans. Listen, we used much of those savings to close the prescription drug doughnut hole. In your budget, you took the whole $500 billion…

I thank the chairman for yielding. If you look at the Boehner proposal, it says we've got to cut $1.8 trillion. The Speaker of the House has already said that you can't have any revenue as part of that, that you can't close one corporate…

You know what we've seen play out here is, a few years back, we provided the tax breaks that went disproportionately to the very wealthy in this country. Now all of a sudden--oh, well, we can't pay our bills anymore, a good part of that…

Just to be very clear, the Democratic Senate leader Mr. Reid has put on the table a plan that would cut more immediately than the Republican plan before us today, even if you don't include the overseas contingency account funding. The…

Again, the President's proposal, which mirrors the framework of the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles Commission, says we'll do $3 in cuts with $1 in revenue. It's shared responsibility to reducing our deficit so that our economy in the future can…

It does not encourage certainty or confidence in the markets or anywhere else for one party to say that if they don't get the budget their way, they're going to prevent the United States from paying its bills. That sends a terrible…

I find it very curious that on the one hand our Republican colleagues are saying that the revenues that the President has requested as part of a balanced plan are peanuts, that they're irrelevant, and on the other hand arguing that somehow…

This certainly is the only plan on the table that would insert a provision into the Constitution of the United States that makes it easier to cut Medicare and easier to cut Social Security than it is to cut subsidies to oil and gas…

What the Democratic leader asked was how could we tell the children that we chose to reduce the deficit by cutting their ability to afford college rather than cutting subsidies for the oil and gas industry? Those are the kind of choices…

I just remind my colleagues that only seven States placed both the supermajority requirements and the caps that this would place in the Constitution of the United States. With that, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms…

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran).

I thank the gentleman. If what you mean by protecting the status quo is meaning that I am opposed to actually manipulating the Constitution of the United States to make it harder to reduce special interest tax breaks, yes, I don't think we…

I agree with a lot of what the gentleman said. I would say that the President has put a plan on the table to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over about 10 years. It does it with $3 in spending cuts to $1 in revenue. That approach…