On the recordDecember 17, 2015
I rise to join my colleagues, including the Senator from Wisconsin, to discuss what we are going to be voting on tomorrow. First, I should say I have no major problem with the budget deal, with the omnibus. The process isn't exactly what it should have been. We didn't consider our 12 appropriations bills on the floor. However, the appropriations process did go through the committee process, and it was a result of bicameral and bipartisan negotiations. My problem is with the tax extenders part of the package. First, it is a double standard. For all of this year--and we struggled in the Armed Services Committee and through the appropriations process-- everything that had to be increased in spending for whatever purpose had to be paid for. That was the standard. Everything has to be paid for. We had to find offsets. Then all of a sudden, we are considering a $680 billion hole in the deficit that doesn't have to be paid for. It is like we are all concerned about the debt, except when we aren't. Frankly, as someone who has been here for a fairly short time, I find this puzzling. The rule ought to apply both ways, because tax expenditures, by the way, are what they are. Republican and Democratic economists concede that the deductions, loopholes, and changes in the Tax Code are called tax expenditures. That is what they are, because otherwise they would be revenues to the government.…
