On House Floor, Boyle Fights Back Against Republican Betrayal of the Middle Class

WASHINGTON, DC -  Today, Congressman Brendan F. Boyle (PA-02), Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, led debate on the House floor ahead of a vote on the far-right Republican budget resolution. The GOP budget would make the largest cuts to Medicaid and SNAP in US history, forcing tens of millions of Americans to pay the price for the GOP's tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations. Additional information on the GOP budget is available here and district data on the impacts of this dangerous budget are available here.

Remarks as delivered and video are below:

 (Click for video of remarks as delivered)

Ranking Member Boyle's full opening remarks as delivered:

I have to say it's like deja vu all over again, because we were last on the House floor about a month ago to have a debate about the House Republican budget reconciliation resolution, which included trillions of dollars in big giveaways that mostly benefit the top 1%, paid for in part by the biggest Medicaid cuts in American history combined with trillions of dollars in new debt. Here we are again, a month later, and after the Senate Republicans made their changes, we have even more in tax cut giveaways.

Instead of four and a half trillion, it's now seven trillion, most of which one penny doesn't even pay for it, except again for cuts to Medicaid, as well as cuts to other programs. Now, there's a little bit of confusion here in a couple aspects, and I want to quickly address them. First, on tax cuts. There is no question that there will not be a tax increase on working Americans.

There is widespread agreement on both sides of the aisle when it comes to tax cuts on those making under a million dollars a year. In fact, in the rules committee a few weeks ago, a Democratic member offered an amendment to say we agree. Where the disagreement lies, is in those who make more than a million dollars a year, the top 1%, in fact, the top one half of 1%. Every Democratic member voted in favor of that amendment that would make clear we'd be extending the tax cuts for everyone who makes up to a million dollars, a massive amount of money. Every Democrat voted for it. Every Republican voted against it.

So don't be confused and don't be scared by this scare tactic. If you are a middle-class American, if you are in the 99%, you will not see your taxes go up next year. There's no question about that. What is at issue is the tax cuts for multi-millionaires, billionaires, and big corporations.

Now, there's another part that has gotten confused or obscured, and that's with respect to the Medicaid cuts. As CBO confirmed in a letter they sent to Mr. Pallone and to me, there is no question that this piece of legislation before us calls for hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid cuts, the largest in American history. There are some on the other side who have said, well the word Medicaid technically doesn't exist in the bill, therefore these cuts don't exist. Give me a break. The instruction in this piece of legislation directs the Energy and Commerce Committee to identify at least $880 billion of cuts in those programs where they have jurisdiction.

Well, guess what? 93% of their jurisdiction is Medicare and Medicaid. You can literally cut everything else that they have jurisdiction over, and that only gets you about $380 billion. So at least $500 billion by definition, in order to follow and carry out these instructions have to come from Medicaid.

Now finally, because I know we've got a lot of speakers on this side, there is something additional in this new version of the reconciliation resolution. It is called 'current policy baseline.' It is a fraud and to House Republicans' credit actually, in their proposal, they didn't rely on this fraud. Current policy baseline, with a straight face, wants you to believe that permanent extension of the tax cuts won't cost one dime.

This would establish a dangerous new precedent here. For 51 years, we've operated under the Budget and Impoundment Control Act. For 51 years, we've had the Congressional Budget Office, and we've had these rules - as imperfect as they may be - that we have to follow, that things have to be paid for within a 10 year window.

Current policy baseline means that rule goes out the window. And if we think that establishing this new precedent, that this will be the only time it's ever used, that's crazy. And if we think that we have a national debt issue right now, which we both agree on, it will get far, far worse if the new standard becomes this phony fraud of current policy baseline.

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