On the recordFebruary 8, 2012
I yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum), a member of the Appropriations Committee and the Budget Committee. Ms. McCOLLUM. I thank the chairman. I respect the bipartisan efforts of my colleagues on the Budget Committee, but I oppose passage of H.R. 3521. This bill grants the executive branch more power, and it will do little to reduce our deficit. Make no mistake, this bill sacrifices congressional authority. If H.R. 3521 were a serious effort to reduce our deficit, it would address the hundreds of billions of dollars we currently spend through our Tax Code. In fiscal year 2010, tax expenditures constituted a bigger part of our budget than Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and national defense. Tax expenditures were twice as large as all nondiscretionary spending combined. With the Federal budget on an unsustainable path, our country's fiscal problems need to be addressed in a way that is both effective and equitable. Scaling back and reforming tax expenditures must be an important part of the effort. The bipartisan Simpson-Bowles report explained that the spending in the Tax Code costs over $1 trillion every year. They call these tax earmarks. Why? Because they are special tax breaks granted to special taxpayers.…
