John Delaney: “I want to thank the gentlelady from New York for yielding me this time to stand up, rise, and speak out against Mr.…”

“I want to thank the gentlelady from New York for yielding me this time to stand up, rise, and speak out against Mr. Ryan's budget. While I have many significant policy objections that are embedded in Mr. Ryan's budget, my main objection is based on the fact that the budget is built upon a fundamentally flawed analytical framework. I think it is important to focus on that when we think about budgets, Mr. Chairman. The fundamental driver--or the goal of the Ryan budget is to have our deficits at zero in 10 years. I believe Mr. Ryan does this because he thinks it is good political optics, and it sounds good. The problem with this goal is it is fundamentally, economically and fiscally, the wrong goal. It is unnecessary, and it is unrealistic. It is unrealistic based on the fact of the demographics the country is facing. We are somewhere through the midway of this aging of the population that we like to talk about, Mr. Chairman, where the population of people over 65--our citizens over 65 will double from 1980 to 2020 to 2030. This puts tremendous burdens on the Federal Government. But it is also an unnecessary goal. A zero deficit is an unnecessary goal if you think about the basic math of deficits and debt. The reason our debt has grown to such a significant level in this country is because, for the last several years, our deficits, as expressed as a percentage of the economy, have exceeded the economic growth on an annual basis for the economy.…”