Max Baucus: “with great respect, I must inform this body that this amendment is pure fiction. It is pure fiction because the House…”

“with great respect, I must inform this body that this amendment is pure fiction. It is pure fiction because the House and the Senate this year have been using Congressional Budget Office baseline numbers to predict what the surplus is or is not and what is left for spending. Under that formula, there is virtually no money in this tax bill left for discretionary spending. A few days ago, a new chart suddenly popped up. The new chart comes up with this money. How does it come up with this money? It basically assumes that the Congress, over the next 10 years, is going to not only cut discretionary spending under the caps as planned but then not raise discretionary spending above inflation over the next 8 years. I say that is a fiction--it is just not going to happen, so the money is not there--developed by this recent new chart. If it is an accurate assumption that there is no spending, then it cuts discretionary spending by 50 percent, one or the other. It is a fiction.”