John Spratt: “Mr. Chairman, budgets are about values and vision. Where your treasure is, the Bible says, there also is your heart. But…”

“Mr. Chairman, budgets are about values and vision. Where your treasure is, the Bible says, there also is your heart. But if you cut through all of the arcane detail, all the numbers, it is hard to find the heart in the Ryan resolution. Buried in this budget resolution, if you dig deep enough, are some enormous cuts exceeding anything that has ever been proposed, much less passed, in the past, particularly with respect to health care, in which people are totally dependent. These cuts are so extreme, so deep that they go to the reality of this whole resolution. It turns on these cuts, and the real question is whether or not they are politically or practically possible. These cuts are dictated by an extraordinary process called reconciliation. Here is what the cuts amount to: Our committee, the Budget Committee, if this resolution were adopted, would be dictating to the Energy and Commerce Committee, with jurisdiction over Medicare and Medicaid, cuts of $97 billion over the next 5 years. With respect to Medicare, this committee, if this resolution were adopted, would direct that the Ways and Means Committee go back to Medicare and cut another $153 billion out of Medicare or, if they couldn't get that much out of Medicare, cut it out of the safety net programs that are in the province of the Ways and Means Committee, shredding the safety net for SSI, for TANF, and other programs.”