Mr. President, earlier today I came to the floor to talk about the danger this Republican budget poses to our economic and national security. I would like to expand on why this budget is out of balance and to further highlight the risks of using OCO, as some of my colleagues on the other side have proposed, instead of eliminating the sequester. This budget, instead of taking a balanced approach to growing our economy and fiscal responsibility, like raising revenue by closing egregious tax loopholes and investing that revenue in job creation measures, doubles down on unrealistic and unfair cuts to programs that help grow and strengthen America's middle class. This perverse standard is evident across this budget and it reinforces a disturbing trend by my colleagues on the other side--if it is a broad- based investment in our economy, like investing in infrastructure or providing aid to jobseekers, then it must be paid for by cuts on the backs of middle- class Americans; but, if it is for a set of powerful special interests like the extension of tax expenditures then the deficit doesn't matter to many of my colleagues on the other side. This sort of double standard is what causes the American people to feel that Congress is out of touch. Most alarmingly, this budget does not eliminate the automatic spending reductions, known as the sequester, contained in the Budget Control Act.…
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