Boyle Opening Statement at Hearing on President Biden's 2025 Budget

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Pennsylvania Congressman Brendan F. Boyle, Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, delivered opening remarks at a Budget Committee hearing on President Biden's 2025 budget. The Committee heard testimony from Director of the Office of Management and Budget Shalanda Young.

 

Ranking Member Boyle’s remarks as delivered:

 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's great to have you back here, Director Young. You know, it's common, this time of year, in this cycle, to hear the question “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

 

Well, four years ago today, then-President Trump was busy tweeting out crazy conspiracy theories about COVID-19. By the end of the month, a million and a half Americans would lose their jobs. By the end of the following month, a record 20.5 million Americans would lose their jobs.

 

Many American families were stuck inside, probably like my family. I was on Zoom in a little office in my house, my wife teaching her second-grade class from our dining room on Zoom, and our daughter, a kindergartner at the time, in her “kindergarten class”, sitting at our kitchen table.

 

Most American families were worried about keeping ends meet and, frankly, keeping their mental health. Well, let's look at where instead we are today. All of the jobs that were lost during COVID had been earned back and more. Unemployment has been below 4 percent for a record 25 consecutive months, the longest in more than a half-century.

 

In 2023, contrary to what we heard about supposedly teetering on recession, and despite the predictions of all the naysayers and doomsdayers, 2.5 percent economic growth, more than any other peer economy in the world. And inflation, it has cooled considerably. We are now almost at the Fed target, and as was confirmed yesterday as projected, the Fed will cut rates by 75 basis points over the course of this year.

 

It has gotten so good, Mr. Chairman, that the center-right Economist out with this latest headline: "America's Pumped-Up Economy." So when we consider the fact that this economy has come all the way back from the depths of where we were four years ago today, why in the world would we ever go back to where we were just four short years ago?

 

Well, that is exactly where Republicans want to lead us. Just yesterday afternoon, and I appreciate the timing for this hearing today, the Republican Study Committee released its 2025 budget. Here's what they propose:

 

Cutting Social Security by one and a half trillion dollars. Raising the retirement age. Cuts promised to benefits for those who are currently paying into the system and near retirement age.

 

Medicare - one trillion dollars worth of cuts. It would end the Medicare guarantee and turn Medicare into a premium support system. Seniors would have to fend for themselves on the open market with nothing but a coupon to offset as much of the cost of the insurance as they could find.

 

Medicaid, CHIP, and the Affordable Care Act cut by an additional four and a half trillion dollars. This is the Republican budget, and what they plan to do if they were to gain full control here in Washington, D.C.

 

So, Mr. Chairman, you're right. There is a stark and clear difference between the two visions. One is a vision that would take us back to the depths of where we were just four years ago. The other is a vision that has literally led the world in economic growth.

 

I look forward to hearing more about the details of both of those visions today, and I look forward to your testimony here, Director Young. Thank you.

 

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