Paul Ryan: “I thank the gentleman for posing this amendment. The reason we are here today, Mr. Chairman, is because this is…”

“I thank the gentleman for posing this amendment. The reason we are here today, Mr. Chairman, is because this is overbudget. Take a look at this bill right here. It is $2.8 billion above the President's request and includes a $3.1 billion boost for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. There are also some phony gimmicks in this spending bill. As noted, the bill provides phony offsets for spending increases by rescinding budget authority with no outlay savings. So what you are doing, you are actually canceling something that doesn't really exist to show paper savings so you can spend it somewhere else. Now, this is an old trick that has been done on both sides of the aisle over the years, but it still doesn't make it right. The problem we have with this bill, as the preceding bills and the following appropriations bills, is it is $34 billion above last year's spending level just for what we have passed so far. That is $19 billion above the President's request. This majority's spending bills are going to be $81 billion above last year's spending level. When you look at the budget resolution, this bill does conform to the budget resolution. It meets 302(b). What that means in budget talk is they are conforming to their budget. But what does their budget do? Their budget leads to the largest tax increase in American history.”