On the recordJanuary 5, 2011
As I listen to this debate, I want to say that I and many of my colleagues agree that we must take the deficit seriously; but to do so, we have to not only examine spending cuts. We have to look at tax expenditures. This new rule that is being presented is literally less than 3 hours old. Since the Republicans have taken control, they have said simply-- and so most Americans understand this--that they will look at spending cuts as really being cost-savers for the government, but tax expenditures--tax cuts--maybe for the wealthiest Americans, maybe for certain companies--maybe some good, maybe some we would even agree with--will not be counted as part of a cost to government, as a reduction in the amount of revenue that we get into the government. They will simply ignore it, and the expenditures will just get added to the deficit. Just last week--and for weeks and weeks before that--they said deficit reduction was at the top of their agenda. It took them 3 hours to make that an untrue statement. They have simply already set up a situation where they can add trillions and trillions of dollars to the national deficit, and we can do nothing about it.
