Hoyer Remarks in Opposition to Permanent, Unpaid-For Tax Extenders Package

WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) spoke on the House Floor today in opposition to a permanent, unpaid-for tax extenders package. Below is a transcript of his remarks and a link to the video:

Click here to watch the video.

“I thank the Gentleman for yielding. The last Speaker – I have heard that speech in 1981, I heard it in 2001, I've heard it in 2003. The certainty of this bill is that we will explode further deficits and provide for disinvestment. That's the certainty of this bill, and I rise in strong opposition to it.

“This package will raise deficits by approximately $622 billion over the next ten years – add to that an additional $58 billion in unpaid-for tax provisions in the omnibus bill - approximately $680 billion.  And when you add to that interest, almost $800 billion in additional debt, Mr. and Mrs. America.

“I came to this Floor on Tuesday and spoke in greater detail about my opposition to this package. I want to highlight again one major issue, and that is how enacting this legislation will set the stage for the next round of painful sequester cuts, otherwise known as disinvestment in growing our economy and jobs. Do my colleagues not see the tragic symmetry of this package's almost $800 billion in new deficits and the sequester’s $813 billion in cuts that were imposed for the sake of deficit reduction?  Republicans will again insist upon hundreds of billions of cuts from domestic discretionary investment, i.e. growing jobs and the economy, in order to make up for the budget shortfall incurred by the extension of these tax credits, some of which are made permanent.

“There are certainly good reasons to make a number of these tax credits and deductions permanent. I support making many of these permanent. But we ought to pay for it in the process, as your predecessor did, Mr. Camp.  It was a tough decision he made, and it was dismissed out of hand, because it was hard to do.  This is easy to do.  No courage required to vote for this bill.  All you have to do is suspend common sense.  This legislation flies in the face of the basic budgeting principle which hardworking families all across our nation understand and have to live with every month.

“Maya MacGuineas, President of the Committee for Responsible Federal Budget wrote in the Washington Post last week, and I quote: ‘How do we explain to our children that we borrowed more than $1 trillion, counting interest, not because it was a national emergency or to make critical investments in the future, but because we just don't like paying our bills?’

“Republicans would answer, as they always do, that tax cuts somehow magically pay for themselves.  I have been here thirty-five years.  It has never happened.  But we have seen the notion disproven several times over, and the results of experimenting with the idea have been higher deficits and a ballooning debt that fuels Republican efforts to disinvest in our future and dismantle Medicare, Social Security, and safety net programs.  Let's not make this same mistake again.

“Instead we ought to be voting on a straight-forward, two-year extension and then commit ourselves to a meaningful tax reform, as David Camp did.  It's tough to do.  I understand that.  But it's the right thing to do.  Let us show that we have courage as well as common sense.  Defeat this bill.  And let us move on to meaningful tax reform and growing our economy.”