Political Quotes

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, let me begin by thanking the chairman of the Budget Committee, Chairman Paul Ryan, and the Budget Committee staff as well for their hard work on H.R. 1872, the Budget and Accounting Transparency Act. As many have talked about before, our budget process in this country is broken. Simply put, we need to make the budget process more transparent. So the bill before the House today, the Budget and Accounting Transparency Act, is, as we like to say, a commonsense attempt to introduce more sunshine and common sense into our budget process. So what would this legislation do? Most importantly, the bill will require that the Federal Government apply something called fair value accounting. Now, that is the same credit accounting standards as the private sector uses when making or guaranteeing loans. So fair value accounting provides a more robust or more complete picture of the cost to the taxpayer of government loan programs or government lending programs. So fair value accounting accomplishes this how? By accounting for an additional market-risk premium. Also, the bill recognizes the budgetary impact of government- sponsored enterprises of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. So this bill would then bring these wards of the taxpayer from out of the shadows and onto the budget. So why exactly do we need this specific piece of legislation here today?…”