Hoyer Discusses Republicans' Tax Bill on CNBC

WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) joined CNBC this afternoon to discuss House Republicans' tax bill, which was released earlier today. Below are excerpts from the interview and a link to the video: 

Click here to watch the full interview.

“Obviously, they don’t have the votes for their bill right now. But I still think, from the cursory overview of it, that it still is a bill that substantially advantages the wealthy and not the middle class. It’s a bill that admittedly puts a real hole in the debt. Here is a party that said they were going to balance the budget in ten years, a party that said they were for fiscal responsibility. And they’re producing a bill that, admittedly by them, increases up $1.5 trillion - and, very frankly, we think substantially more - the national debt, which means [our] kids are going to pay for it.”
 
“It is also a bill which we believe is going to be done in a process that gives the public no opportunity for input, jam it through, [which is] in stark contrast to how the 1986 bill was done when Ronald Reagan was President of the United States, and Democrats were in charge of the House, and [former Speaker] Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan worked together in a bipartisan fashion.  It took months to consider the proposal, over 450 witnesses testified. We are not going to have any witnesses testify here.”