Political Quotes

“Thank you, Senator Merkley. I mentioned earlier the history of the section that the Republican Budget chairman is using to perform this multitrillion-dollar magical act of making huge, deficit-busting numbers disappear. It is called section 312. It has been used before, but it has always been minor, corrective, and bipartisan. I mentioned earlier the adjustment that was made on a bipartisan basis to the Power Marketing Administration's numbers to return the CBO to an agreement that the Senate had previously made. That was not enormously consequential. This is almost certainly the first time you are hearing about it. Again, in 2023, as Budget chair, with Republican Chair Jodey Arrington on the House side, we made a $105 million adjustment to a dairy program. Today, we are talking about trillions. This was a $105 million adjustment--again, bipartisan, minor, and corrective, fixing a technical issue on a bipartisan basis. Last year, Speaker Johnson and Leader Schumer agreed to direct CBO to score a feed program with an OMB estimate, and they used this rule again--collaborating on a bipartisan basis on a matter that was minor and corrective. Well, this is different. This is trillions, and Republicans are using this rule to pretend that it is not. There are a lot of ways to look at who is right. Time, obviously, will tell, but this bill actually has a ``tell'' right in it. Page 754 of this bill is the reality check on whether or not they are running up the debt by trillions.”