On the recordMay 19, 2011
The ranking member, my friend from Alabama, summed up the fiscal predicament perfectly. It comes down to a lack of balance. Our friends on the other side simply cannot agree among themselves at this time, and the reason they cannot agree is, most of them are looking to the revenue side of the ledger to resolve what is a spending problem. The Finance Committee has jurisdiction over 50 percent of Federal spending, and that will trend to 60 percent shortly. It has jurisdiction over nearly all revenues. As a member of the Finance Committee and ranking member, I fail to see how a tax-increase-driven budget can be advanced in the Finance Committee on a bipartisan basis. I am keenly interested in how the Budget Committee will come down on the biggest policy question of our time. I am pleased to have the advice and counsel of my friend from Alabama as that process moves forward. I would like to have the advice and counsel of the distinguished Budget Committee chairman, but he cannot get his side to do what is reasonable; that is, bring down spending. That is what we have to do. We are taxing enough. We are spending us into oblivion, and that is the problem.
