Hoyer: Republican Budget is a Severe Disinvestment in America's Future and Our Long-Term Economic Competitiveness

WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) spoke on the House Floor this afternoon in opposition to House Republicans' budget for Fiscal Year 2016. Below is a transcript of his remarks and a link to the video.

Click here to watch the video.

“I thank my friend, Mr. Van Hollen, for yielding. I thank him for the extraordinary job that he's done as Ranking Member of the Budget Committee.

“My friend from South Carolina [Rep. Mark Sanford] has left the Floor. I regret that. He was the governor of a state. This budget would not have been tenable during his administration or, frankly, the administration of my own governor, who happens to be a Republican – we’ve had Democrats in the past.

“The Gentleman ended with a number of cautions about the path of fiscal irresponsibility and what it would lead to. I agree with them on that. But I will tell him: it is indeed unfortunate that, once again, we have a budget that does not put us on a path of fiscal sustainability. We have a budget that is not real. We have a budget that pretends. That's what USA Today said today.

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition, therefore, to the budget resolutions offered by the Chairman of the Budget Committee, Mr. Price, for whom I have great respect. I say, ‘budget resolutions,’ plural, because there are two of them.

“One was reported by the Committee that channels $36 billion in the Overseas Contingency Operations account, disguising it as emergency war funding as a way of getting around the defense sequester caps while offering token language providing about $20 billion of that increase to be offset at a later date. The other budget was unveiled by Republicans yesterday. It includes an additional $2 billion on top of that $36 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations [funding] and removes any mention of paying for this effective negation of the defense sequester.

“The gentleman from South Carolina referred to devices like that. This dueling budget strategy came about because Republicans didn't have the votes for their own proposal yet again. So they're offering their Members two options – blow through the defense sequester ceilings by $36 billion or blow through it by $38 billion.  Apparently, some are going to mask their either hawkish perspective on defense or hawkish perspective on the deficit by a vote either for A or for A.

“While they blow through the cap on the defense side, they continue the cap on the domestic side for this year before cutting dramatically below that level in future years, mercilessly gutting priority investments in education, job training, innovation, research, and other priorities of this nation if it is to remain competitive in world markets, if it is to remain a growing, thriving nation. This budget is a severe disinvestment in America's future and our long-term economic competitiveness.

“This approach is not a blueprint for growth and opportunity for America's businesses and workers. It is, rather sadly, a recipe for economic and fiscal disaster in the years to come. Mr. Speaker, if we fail to invest in the next generation or to continue the war on poverty in this country, we are doing a grave disservice to our children and our grandchildren by not giving them the tools they need to secure the jobs and opportunities that open doors to the middle class.

“Like the Ryan budgets, which were never implemented by the Majority party at any point in time from this House – forget about blaming Senator Reid or the Senate; they were not implemented in this House – Mr. Price’s budgets rely on a magic asterisk, hiding the specifics behind over $1 trillion in cuts in order to appear to balance it in its stated goal of nine years. So no one, no one, knows exactly what programs Republicans would cut or by how much. That is not being honest with the American people.

“It would turn Medicare into a voucher program and would take access to affordable health care away for millions of Americans by repealing the Affordable Care Act.  Make no mistake, the Republican budget alternatives are political documents that are unworkable and unserious when it comes to governing.

“Like previous Republican budgets that rely on sequestration, I have no doubt that the Majority will not be able to enact appropriation bills that adhere to whichever version that you will pass. You have not done so in the past, and you will not do so this year. They will continue to be, as Republican Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Mr. Rogers, said, ‘unrealistic and ill conceived.’

“Budget Committee Democrats, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and the Congressional Black Caucus have all put forward alternatives that are far better than these dueling Republican budget resolutions. Democrats prioritize replacing the sequester, which Mr. Rogers believes should be done on both the defense and domestic side, so we can make investments in America's future that are fiscally sustainable.

“I urge my colleagues to reject the two Republican budget alternatives and their strategy of selective sequester.”