Hoyer, Democrats to Ryan: Don’t Count on Us to Fix the PAYGO Problem You’ve Created with the GOP’s Tax Bill
Press Types
Press Release
For Immediate Release:
December 15, 2017
Contact Info:
Mariel Saez 202-225-3130
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD), joined by Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-MA), Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Budget Committee Ranking Member John Yarmuth (D-KY), and 184 House Democrats sent a letter to Speaker Ryan making clear that his party is responsible for the deficits created by the Republican tax bill and any resulting cuts through statutory PAYGO. The letter notes that Republicans cannot rely on Democratic votes to resolve this problem without working in a bipartisan way to address the uncertainty their tax bill will cause to the economy and the health care system.
The Republican tax bill would increase the deficit by $1.5 trillion, triggering automatic PAYGO cuts to mandatory spending, including $25 billion from Medicare and additional cuts to farm safety net programs and others critical to our economy and our people. Last week, Speaker Ryan and Senator McConnell promised wavering Republicans in the House and Senate that PAYGO cuts would not be triggered as a result of passing their tax bill without indicating how such automatic cuts would be waived. In today’s letter, Democrats made clear that their support for a waiver cannot simply be assumed without some corresponding action to stabilize health care markets.
“Overwhelming uncertainty looms over our entire health care system and throughout our economy as a result of these developments,” the authors wrote to Speaker Ryan. “Should you enact a tax bill by the end of the year that adds $1.5 trillion to the deficit and, as a result, triggers PAYGO cuts next month, any effort to mitigate those cuts must also remove these other catalysts of uncertainty. At a minimum, that must include rejecting the elimination of the individual mandate as well as the use of reconciliation procedures next year for Medicare benefit cuts in order to fill the fiscal gap left by your tax bill.”
“This letter sends a clear message,” Whip Hoyer said, “that Democrats will not simply give our votes away to help Republicans subject this country to their dangerous tax fiasco. If Republicans wish to waive PAYGO - which was enacted while Democrats were in the Majority in 2010 and was created to ensure fiscal discipline in our budgeting – they will need to take steps to work with us toward stabilizing health care markets and mitigating the damage their bill would do to our economy and to the American people.”
To read the letter in full, see below or click here.
----
December 15, 2017
The Hon. Paul D. Ryan
Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
H-232, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Speaker Ryan:
The irresponsible tax cuts you are pursuing will explode the federal deficit, violating the principle, enshrined in the 2010 Statutory PAYGO law, that tax cuts should be paid for. Under that law, your unpaid-for tax cuts, if enacted, will trigger automatic, across-the board cuts to Medicare, the farm safety net, and other programs. Given the lack of bipartisanship to date in your effort to provide massive tax cuts to the wealthy at the expense of the middle class while adding $1.5 trillion to the deficit, it will be your responsibility to deal with these consequences.
With that in mind, we read with interest your recent joint statement with the Senate Majority Leader suggesting that these required across-the-board cuts “will not happen.” These cuts would be a direct consequence of your massive $1.5 trillion deficit increase from tax cuts for the wealthy, so it is confusing to hear that you and Leader McConnell “will work to ensure these spending cuts are prevented.” We are curious how you plan to do that, as the obvious solution would be not to pass those tax cuts in the first place.
In addition to the looming $25 billion Medicare cut next month, enacting your tax bill will result in widespread chaos to the health insurance market. The Senate bill’s elimination of the individual mandate, according to the Congressional Budget Office, will increase premiums and 13 million Americans will lose their health insurance coverage. Likewise, seniors and those preparing for retirement are rightly nervous that your recent pronouncement that “we're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit” means that cuts to Medicare and Social Security benefits are the necessary next step to pay for the added deficits your tax cuts would produce.
Overwhelming uncertainty looms over our entire health care system and throughout our economy as a result of these developments. Should you enact a tax bill by the end of the year that adds $1.5 trillion to the deficit and, as a result, triggers PAYGO cuts next month, any effort to mitigate those cuts must also remove these other catalysts of uncertainty. At a minimum, that must include rejecting the elimination of the individual mandate as well as the use of reconciliation procedures next year for Medicare benefit cuts in order to fill the fiscal gap left by your tax bill.
We will not be complicit in any effort to undermine access to affordable coverage or increase costs for millions of Americans, just as we will continue our strenuous opposition to your reckless tax proposals.
Sincerely,
STENY H. HOYER
House Democratic Whip
NANCY PELOSI
House Democratic Leader
JAMES CLYBURN
Assistant Democratic Leader
JOE CROWLEY
Chair
House Democratic Caucus
LINDA SANCHEZ
Vice Chair
House Democratic Caucus
RICHARD NEAL
Ranking Member
Committee on Ways and Means
FRANK PALLONE, JR.
Ranking Member
Committee on Energy and Commerce
JOHN YARMUTH
Ranking Member
Committee on the Budget
Alma Adams
Pete Aguilar
Nanette Barragan
Karen Bass
Joyce Beatty
Ami Bera
Donald S. Beyer Jr.
Sanford Bishop
Lisa Blunt Rochester
Suzanne Bonamici
Madeleine Bordallo
Brendan Boyle
Robert Brady
Anthony Brown
Julia Brownley
Cheri Bustos
G. K. Butterfield
Michael Capuano
Salud Carbajal
Tony Cardenas
Andre Carson
Matt Cartwright
Kathy Castor
Joaquin Castro
Judy Chu
David Cicilline
Katherine Clark
Yvette Clarke
Wm. Lacy Clay
Emanuel Cleaver
Steve Cohen
Gerry Connolly
Jim Cooper
Lou Correa
Jim Costa
Joe Courtney
Elijah Cummings
Danny Davis
Susan Davis
Peter DeFazio
Diana DeGette
John Delaney
Rosa DeLauro
Suzan DelBene
Val Demings
Mark DeSaulnier
Ted Deutch
Debbie Dingell
Lloyd Doggett
Michael Doyle
Keith Ellison
Eliot Engel
Anna Eshoo
Adriano Espaillat
Elizabeth Esty
Dwight Evans
Bill Foster
Lois Frankel
Tulsi Gabbard
Ruben Gallego
John Garamendi
Jimmy Gomez
Vicente Gonzalez
Gene Green
Al Green
Raul Grijalva
Luis V. Gutierrez
Colleen Hanabusa
Alcee Hastings
Denny Heck
Brian Higgins
Jim Himes
Jared Huffman
Sheila Jackson Lee
Pramila Jayapal
Hakeem Jeffries
Eddie Bernice Johnson
Hank Johnson
Marcy Kaptur
William Keating
Robin L. Kelly
Joe Kennedy III
Ro Khanna
Ruben Kihuen
Dan Kildee
Derek Kilmer
Ron Kind
Raja Krishnamoorthi
Annie Kuster
James Langevin
Rick Larsen
John Larson
Brenda Lawrence
Al Lawson
Barbara Lee
Sander Levin
John Lewis
Ted Lieu
Dan Lipinski
Dave Loebsack
Zoe Lofgren
Alan Lowenthal
Nita Lowey
Ben Ray Lujan
Michelle Lujan Grisham
Stephen Lynch
Carolyn Maloney
Sean Patrick Maloney
Doris Matsui
Betty McCollum
Donald McEachin
James McGovern
Jerry McNerney
Gregory Meeks
Grace Meng
Gwen Moore
Seth Moulton
Jerrold Nadler
Grace Napolitano
Rick Nolan
Donald Norcross
Eleanor Holmes Norton
Tom O'Halleran
Beto O'Rourke
Jimmy Panetta
Bill Pascrell
Donald Payne
Ed Perlmutter
Scott Peters
Chellie Pingree
Stacey Plaskett
Mark Pocan
Jared Polis
David Price
Mike Quigley
Jamie Raskin
Kathleen Rice
Cedric Richmond
Jacky Rosen
Lucille Roybal-Allard
Raul Ruiz
C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger
Bobby Rush
Timothy Ryan
Gregorio Sablan
John Sarbanes
Janice Schakowsky
Adam Schiff
Brad Schneider
Kurt Schrader
David Scott
Robert Scott
Jose Serrano
Terri Sewell
Carol Shea-Porter
Brad Sherman
Albio Sires
Louise McIntosh Slaughter
Adam Smith
Darren Soto
Jackie Speier
Tom Suozzi
Eric Swalwell
Mark Takano
Mike Thompson
Bennie Thompson
Dina Titus
Paul Tonko
Norma Torres
Niki Tsongas
Juan Vargas
Marc Veasey
Filemon Vela
Nydia Velazquez
Peter Visclosky
Tim Walz
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Maxine Waters
Bonnie Watson Coleman
Peter Welch
Frederica Wilson
The Republican tax bill would increase the deficit by $1.5 trillion, triggering automatic PAYGO cuts to mandatory spending, including $25 billion from Medicare and additional cuts to farm safety net programs and others critical to our economy and our people. Last week, Speaker Ryan and Senator McConnell promised wavering Republicans in the House and Senate that PAYGO cuts would not be triggered as a result of passing their tax bill without indicating how such automatic cuts would be waived. In today’s letter, Democrats made clear that their support for a waiver cannot simply be assumed without some corresponding action to stabilize health care markets.
“Overwhelming uncertainty looms over our entire health care system and throughout our economy as a result of these developments,” the authors wrote to Speaker Ryan. “Should you enact a tax bill by the end of the year that adds $1.5 trillion to the deficit and, as a result, triggers PAYGO cuts next month, any effort to mitigate those cuts must also remove these other catalysts of uncertainty. At a minimum, that must include rejecting the elimination of the individual mandate as well as the use of reconciliation procedures next year for Medicare benefit cuts in order to fill the fiscal gap left by your tax bill.”
“This letter sends a clear message,” Whip Hoyer said, “that Democrats will not simply give our votes away to help Republicans subject this country to their dangerous tax fiasco. If Republicans wish to waive PAYGO - which was enacted while Democrats were in the Majority in 2010 and was created to ensure fiscal discipline in our budgeting – they will need to take steps to work with us toward stabilizing health care markets and mitigating the damage their bill would do to our economy and to the American people.”
To read the letter in full, see below or click here.
----
December 15, 2017
The Hon. Paul D. Ryan
Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
H-232, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Speaker Ryan:
The irresponsible tax cuts you are pursuing will explode the federal deficit, violating the principle, enshrined in the 2010 Statutory PAYGO law, that tax cuts should be paid for. Under that law, your unpaid-for tax cuts, if enacted, will trigger automatic, across-the board cuts to Medicare, the farm safety net, and other programs. Given the lack of bipartisanship to date in your effort to provide massive tax cuts to the wealthy at the expense of the middle class while adding $1.5 trillion to the deficit, it will be your responsibility to deal with these consequences.
With that in mind, we read with interest your recent joint statement with the Senate Majority Leader suggesting that these required across-the-board cuts “will not happen.” These cuts would be a direct consequence of your massive $1.5 trillion deficit increase from tax cuts for the wealthy, so it is confusing to hear that you and Leader McConnell “will work to ensure these spending cuts are prevented.” We are curious how you plan to do that, as the obvious solution would be not to pass those tax cuts in the first place.
In addition to the looming $25 billion Medicare cut next month, enacting your tax bill will result in widespread chaos to the health insurance market. The Senate bill’s elimination of the individual mandate, according to the Congressional Budget Office, will increase premiums and 13 million Americans will lose their health insurance coverage. Likewise, seniors and those preparing for retirement are rightly nervous that your recent pronouncement that “we're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit” means that cuts to Medicare and Social Security benefits are the necessary next step to pay for the added deficits your tax cuts would produce.
Overwhelming uncertainty looms over our entire health care system and throughout our economy as a result of these developments. Should you enact a tax bill by the end of the year that adds $1.5 trillion to the deficit and, as a result, triggers PAYGO cuts next month, any effort to mitigate those cuts must also remove these other catalysts of uncertainty. At a minimum, that must include rejecting the elimination of the individual mandate as well as the use of reconciliation procedures next year for Medicare benefit cuts in order to fill the fiscal gap left by your tax bill.
We will not be complicit in any effort to undermine access to affordable coverage or increase costs for millions of Americans, just as we will continue our strenuous opposition to your reckless tax proposals.
Sincerely,
STENY H. HOYER
House Democratic Whip
NANCY PELOSI
House Democratic Leader
JAMES CLYBURN
Assistant Democratic Leader
JOE CROWLEY
Chair
House Democratic Caucus
LINDA SANCHEZ
Vice Chair
House Democratic Caucus
RICHARD NEAL
Ranking Member
Committee on Ways and Means
FRANK PALLONE, JR.
Ranking Member
Committee on Energy and Commerce
JOHN YARMUTH
Ranking Member
Committee on the Budget
Alma Adams
Pete Aguilar
Nanette Barragan
Karen Bass
Joyce Beatty
Ami Bera
Donald S. Beyer Jr.
Sanford Bishop
Lisa Blunt Rochester
Suzanne Bonamici
Madeleine Bordallo
Brendan Boyle
Robert Brady
Anthony Brown
Julia Brownley
Cheri Bustos
G. K. Butterfield
Michael Capuano
Salud Carbajal
Tony Cardenas
Andre Carson
Matt Cartwright
Kathy Castor
Joaquin Castro
Judy Chu
David Cicilline
Katherine Clark
Yvette Clarke
Wm. Lacy Clay
Emanuel Cleaver
Steve Cohen
Gerry Connolly
Jim Cooper
Lou Correa
Jim Costa
Joe Courtney
Elijah Cummings
Danny Davis
Susan Davis
Peter DeFazio
Diana DeGette
John Delaney
Rosa DeLauro
Suzan DelBene
Val Demings
Mark DeSaulnier
Ted Deutch
Debbie Dingell
Lloyd Doggett
Michael Doyle
Keith Ellison
Eliot Engel
Anna Eshoo
Adriano Espaillat
Elizabeth Esty
Dwight Evans
Bill Foster
Lois Frankel
Tulsi Gabbard
Ruben Gallego
John Garamendi
Jimmy Gomez
Vicente Gonzalez
Gene Green
Al Green
Raul Grijalva
Luis V. Gutierrez
Colleen Hanabusa
Alcee Hastings
Denny Heck
Brian Higgins
Jim Himes
Jared Huffman
Sheila Jackson Lee
Pramila Jayapal
Hakeem Jeffries
Eddie Bernice Johnson
Hank Johnson
Marcy Kaptur
William Keating
Robin L. Kelly
Joe Kennedy III
Ro Khanna
Ruben Kihuen
Dan Kildee
Derek Kilmer
Ron Kind
Raja Krishnamoorthi
Annie Kuster
James Langevin
Rick Larsen
John Larson
Brenda Lawrence
Al Lawson
Barbara Lee
Sander Levin
John Lewis
Ted Lieu
Dan Lipinski
Dave Loebsack
Zoe Lofgren
Alan Lowenthal
Nita Lowey
Ben Ray Lujan
Michelle Lujan Grisham
Stephen Lynch
Carolyn Maloney
Sean Patrick Maloney
Doris Matsui
Betty McCollum
Donald McEachin
James McGovern
Jerry McNerney
Gregory Meeks
Grace Meng
Gwen Moore
Seth Moulton
Jerrold Nadler
Grace Napolitano
Rick Nolan
Donald Norcross
Eleanor Holmes Norton
Tom O'Halleran
Beto O'Rourke
Jimmy Panetta
Bill Pascrell
Donald Payne
Ed Perlmutter
Scott Peters
Chellie Pingree
Stacey Plaskett
Mark Pocan
Jared Polis
David Price
Mike Quigley
Jamie Raskin
Kathleen Rice
Cedric Richmond
Jacky Rosen
Lucille Roybal-Allard
Raul Ruiz
C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger
Bobby Rush
Timothy Ryan
Gregorio Sablan
John Sarbanes
Janice Schakowsky
Adam Schiff
Brad Schneider
Kurt Schrader
David Scott
Robert Scott
Jose Serrano
Terri Sewell
Carol Shea-Porter
Brad Sherman
Albio Sires
Louise McIntosh Slaughter
Adam Smith
Darren Soto
Jackie Speier
Tom Suozzi
Eric Swalwell
Mark Takano
Mike Thompson
Bennie Thompson
Dina Titus
Paul Tonko
Norma Torres
Niki Tsongas
Juan Vargas
Marc Veasey
Filemon Vela
Nydia Velazquez
Peter Visclosky
Tim Walz
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Maxine Waters
Bonnie Watson Coleman
Peter Welch
Frederica Wilson