Hoyer Remarks at Press Conference with House Blue Dog Coalition Calling on Republicans to Uphold Promise of Fiscal Discipline
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Press Release
For Immediate Release:
December 13, 2017
Contact Info:
Mariel Saez 202-225-3130
WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) joined the House Blue Dog Coalition today on the state of the U.S. national debt and the fact that Republicans are making it worse by attempting to jam through a tax bill that will add at least $1.7 trillion to the national debt. Below is a transcript of his remarks:
“Thank you very much, Jim. I want to thank Jim Costa, his predecessors, and present members of the Blue Dogs who have been very focused on the fiscal sustainability of our finances in America and the impact of debt on our country.
“Debt held by the public now stands at $14 trillion or 77% of the size of our entire economy. Yet, Republicans in the House and Senate want to add another $1.7 trillion with a tax bill that isn’t paid for. Very frankly, if this were a Democratic bill, there would not be a single Republican that would vote for it because they would say it was fiscally irresponsible.
“When they say it’s time to invest in our people and our economy, the Republicans’ refrain is predictable—we can’t afford it. And by the way, investment in education and welfare and infrastructure is not dynamically scored. Well, our children and grandchildren can’t afford to go $1.7 trillion further into debt to give tax breaks to those who need them the least.
“This is not about class warfare. Everybody I know wants to be rich, including me. Unfortunately I haven’t gotten there yet, but I want to be rich, and I will pay my fair share of taxes, as I do now. But this is about Paul Ryan saying there are struggling Americans – $59,000 is a family and they need some help. Well, Mr. Speaker, why are you giving approximately 70% of the $1.7 trillion you’re borrowing not to those struggling families, but to those making $900,000 or better? I don’t know the answer to that. I’ve got a thought that the Speaker doesn’t have an answer to that either.
“Republicans claim their tax cuts will pay for themselves, citing the magic of dynamic scoring. Now I’ve been here for a few years and I was here in 1981, and when I came to the Congress, the debt was less than a trillion dollars. To be precise, $934 billion in debt. And then Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp, for whom our Speaker worked and talked about supply side economics and said if you only cut taxes magically, we would have more revenue than we needed and balance the budget. Under Ronald Reagan the debt went up 189%, more than any of the five Presidents with whom I’ve served. One hundred and eighty-nine percent.
“Now let me tell you why that’s so relevant, because a President is the only one who can stop spending in its tracks. Since I’ve come to the Congress we have never overridden a veto of a President who alleged we were spending too much money. Not once in the 37 years that I’ve been here has a President’s veto been overridden. Bush One, who only had four years, continued the economic policies of the Reagan Administration which he had previously called ‘voodoo economics.’ He was right the first time, and he increased the debt 55%.
“And then Bush II, I’ve skipped over Clinton but I’ll come back to him. Bush II increased the debt by 86%, notwithstanding his two tax cuts which were supposed to give us such a robust economy and what it gave us was the worst economy anybody in this room or anybody in this Capitol today, if they’re less than 90 years of age, has experienced.
“So Obama inherited a huge, cratering economy, an economy hemorrhaging 787,000 jobs a year the year he took office in 2009. So we invested in bringing us out of recession and we did, we had the longest growth of jobs, straight months growth of jobs in history, and he increased the debt 88% - 2% more than George Bush in good times.
“What did Bill Clinton do? Bill Clinton came into office in ’93, raised taxes slightly to invest infrastructure, the gasoline tax, 1993. He increased the debt 36%. Less than any President with whom I’ve served and he had the best economy of any of the Presidents with whom I’ve served and we had four years of balanced budgets. How we lament the loss of those balanced budgets.
“We know its necessary to get tax reform - we’re for tax reform. But we’re for fiscally responsible tax reform. As we did in 1986 when we had a balanced, no additional revenue lost in the 1986 bill, zero sum, big reform. It should be done in a bipartisan way, but it’s not working in that way now. We haven’t done anything in a bipartisan way hardly. It’s the same promise Republicans made when they passed those tax cuts in ’01 and ’03 and just a few years later we experienced the worst economic recession in our lifetimes.
“The Republican tax proposals’ fiscal irresponsibility poses a threat to the long term fiscal health of our country. This is precisely why Democrats worked to enact statutory PAYGO in 2010, and the Blue Dogs were the leader on statutory PAYGO. And it was the right thing to do to make sure we didn’t go more deeply into debt and what Statutory PAYGO says, if we pass this bill, we’ll have to cut Medicare next year, next month, January, by $25 billion. What do the Republicans say? Oh, we’re going to waive that. What’s another $25 billion in debt? We’ll just waive it.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the Blue Dogs continue to be the leaders on fiscal responsibility, and I want you to know who very much appreciates it: my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren. They appreciate the fact that the Blue Dogs want to pay our bills, which is tough to do but it’s the morally and fiscally right thing to do. Thank you to my friend Jim Costa and thank you Blue Dogs.”
“Thank you very much, Jim. I want to thank Jim Costa, his predecessors, and present members of the Blue Dogs who have been very focused on the fiscal sustainability of our finances in America and the impact of debt on our country.
“Debt held by the public now stands at $14 trillion or 77% of the size of our entire economy. Yet, Republicans in the House and Senate want to add another $1.7 trillion with a tax bill that isn’t paid for. Very frankly, if this were a Democratic bill, there would not be a single Republican that would vote for it because they would say it was fiscally irresponsible.
“When they say it’s time to invest in our people and our economy, the Republicans’ refrain is predictable—we can’t afford it. And by the way, investment in education and welfare and infrastructure is not dynamically scored. Well, our children and grandchildren can’t afford to go $1.7 trillion further into debt to give tax breaks to those who need them the least.
“This is not about class warfare. Everybody I know wants to be rich, including me. Unfortunately I haven’t gotten there yet, but I want to be rich, and I will pay my fair share of taxes, as I do now. But this is about Paul Ryan saying there are struggling Americans – $59,000 is a family and they need some help. Well, Mr. Speaker, why are you giving approximately 70% of the $1.7 trillion you’re borrowing not to those struggling families, but to those making $900,000 or better? I don’t know the answer to that. I’ve got a thought that the Speaker doesn’t have an answer to that either.
“Republicans claim their tax cuts will pay for themselves, citing the magic of dynamic scoring. Now I’ve been here for a few years and I was here in 1981, and when I came to the Congress, the debt was less than a trillion dollars. To be precise, $934 billion in debt. And then Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp, for whom our Speaker worked and talked about supply side economics and said if you only cut taxes magically, we would have more revenue than we needed and balance the budget. Under Ronald Reagan the debt went up 189%, more than any of the five Presidents with whom I’ve served. One hundred and eighty-nine percent.
“Now let me tell you why that’s so relevant, because a President is the only one who can stop spending in its tracks. Since I’ve come to the Congress we have never overridden a veto of a President who alleged we were spending too much money. Not once in the 37 years that I’ve been here has a President’s veto been overridden. Bush One, who only had four years, continued the economic policies of the Reagan Administration which he had previously called ‘voodoo economics.’ He was right the first time, and he increased the debt 55%.
“And then Bush II, I’ve skipped over Clinton but I’ll come back to him. Bush II increased the debt by 86%, notwithstanding his two tax cuts which were supposed to give us such a robust economy and what it gave us was the worst economy anybody in this room or anybody in this Capitol today, if they’re less than 90 years of age, has experienced.
“So Obama inherited a huge, cratering economy, an economy hemorrhaging 787,000 jobs a year the year he took office in 2009. So we invested in bringing us out of recession and we did, we had the longest growth of jobs, straight months growth of jobs in history, and he increased the debt 88% - 2% more than George Bush in good times.
“What did Bill Clinton do? Bill Clinton came into office in ’93, raised taxes slightly to invest infrastructure, the gasoline tax, 1993. He increased the debt 36%. Less than any President with whom I’ve served and he had the best economy of any of the Presidents with whom I’ve served and we had four years of balanced budgets. How we lament the loss of those balanced budgets.
“We know its necessary to get tax reform - we’re for tax reform. But we’re for fiscally responsible tax reform. As we did in 1986 when we had a balanced, no additional revenue lost in the 1986 bill, zero sum, big reform. It should be done in a bipartisan way, but it’s not working in that way now. We haven’t done anything in a bipartisan way hardly. It’s the same promise Republicans made when they passed those tax cuts in ’01 and ’03 and just a few years later we experienced the worst economic recession in our lifetimes.
“The Republican tax proposals’ fiscal irresponsibility poses a threat to the long term fiscal health of our country. This is precisely why Democrats worked to enact statutory PAYGO in 2010, and the Blue Dogs were the leader on statutory PAYGO. And it was the right thing to do to make sure we didn’t go more deeply into debt and what Statutory PAYGO says, if we pass this bill, we’ll have to cut Medicare next year, next month, January, by $25 billion. What do the Republicans say? Oh, we’re going to waive that. What’s another $25 billion in debt? We’ll just waive it.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the Blue Dogs continue to be the leaders on fiscal responsibility, and I want you to know who very much appreciates it: my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren. They appreciate the fact that the Blue Dogs want to pay our bills, which is tough to do but it’s the morally and fiscally right thing to do. Thank you to my friend Jim Costa and thank you Blue Dogs.”