Rob Portman: “we had an energetic discussion this morning about the budget that is before us. The amendment I am going to offer will…”

“we had an energetic discussion this morning about the budget that is before us. The amendment I am going to offer will help us have a better process to get to pro-growth tax reform to actually get this economy growing. My colleague, Senator Sanders, talked about the fact that real unemployment is far higher than the numbers that are officially reported. I agree with him on that. I agree with him that the economy is not out of the woods, and I agree with him that a lot of people are left behind and will continue to be until we get this economy growing the way you normally see an economy grow during a recovery. It is the weakest economic recovery, economists tell us, since the Great Depression; that is, measured in terms of economic growth, GDP, and in terms of job growth. So what this budget does is it puts in place the process for us to actually get pro-growth on policies: yes, on health care; yes, on taxes, on regulations, and so on to be able to move the economy forward. It was President John F. Kennedy who said that ``a rising tide lifts all boats.'' Now, some people get stuck on the shoals and we need to take care of them too. That is why this budget also has a strong safety net necessary to get economic growth--not sufficient but necessary. That is what this budget does. By the way, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office--not the Republicans, not I--the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office looks at this budget and says, you know what.…”