shouldn't be levying it upon the trats because the democrats don't control anything in ohio right now. >> congressman tim ryan, thanks for talking was. >> great to be with you. thank you. on our next washington journal we'll talk with rob woodall and chris van hollen about the latest congressional budget office report. and later, robert jones of the public religious research institute joins us to discuss politics and religion. "washington journal" airs each morning at 7:00 eastern on c-span. republicans have introduced bills in the house and senate that would revamp the federal budget process. the legislation would make it more difficult for congress to pass spending bills without first having passed a budget. some of the bills gop supporters spoke to reporters about the legislation.

>> a good group, isn't it. thank you all for coming. the american peopleot happy with how congress and the administration manages their money. and i have concluded that they are basically right. first and foremost, we are borrowing 40 cents of every dollar we spend. that's so irresponsible as to produce no real argument in return that this is legitimate. second, in our budget process, we've known for years it's filled with a whole lot of gimmicks, techniques and methods that have developed over the years to hide the real cost of

spending. we think in the 2012 process we're already seeing many of these gimmicks be employed. one little gimmick would be to provide for more money for a popular program like the s-chip, the children's insurance, and you expect to spend that would be called for under the budget procedures. then that allows the money to be appropriated at some other point as extra money. instead of like a family who plans to have a air conditioner and budgets $2,000 for it, it comes in at $1500, they don't then go and treat the $500 as free money to be spent. it's still in their bank account. it has not yet been spent. it should stay there. we are appropriating money in violation of the budget act before we have a budget. we should have a budget first. this bill would deal with that. and i would just say i

appreciate my friend and colleague martha roby. she's got energy and drive. and she has filed this legislation in the house last night that we filed in the senate last year. i believe we on the road to moving forward with legislation that will create more honesty in our budgeting process. many of these are technical, but they're real. it will create more honesty, more fairness, more ability for the american people to understand how much congress is spending and it will be good for america. and i think in the end, few if any of these, proposals would engender any real good government objection. martha, thank you for your good work, and i'll turn it over to you. >> well, thank you so much, senator sessions. and what a tremendous honor to be standing here with these distinguished members of congress in support of thet.

and on behalf of the american people. i am pleased to introduce the house companion bill to senator sessions' senate bill. i also want to thank all of my freshmen colleagues and let me mention representative hyzynga. 13 months ago our freshman class came to washington, and we came from different states with different backgrounds but certainly with a common purpose. we came here to cut spending. we came here to limit federal power, and we came to restore integrity to the federal government. we have seen firsthand the tricks of the trade and the gimmicks used to distort the truth and hide new spending. we learned that through precedent or bad habit, these gimmicks have become institutionalized by both houses of congress and both parties are very guilty of exploiting them. i am convinced along with everyone standing here with me today, that we can do much

better. i believe that america deserves a government that shoots straight and that tells the truth. whereas we're all keenly aware that the number one issue facing america right now is jobs. and that this federal government is doing all that we can to create legislation to help foster an environment where the private sector can do just that. create jobs. but we cannot overlook the reality that we are spending money that we do not have. this reckless spending spree that has happened here in washington has no doubt significantly contributed to the downward economy. and this bill directly and specifically addresses the exact gimmicks in our current budgeting process that have led and will ton lead to increased deficits. americans deserve an honest accountable, predictable budget process, and this bill goes through nine specific gimmicks that are most commonly used. the bill offered by senator

sessions and senator snowe is geared toward senate procedure. and our legislation in the house expands this approach where revenue inappropriation bills are first considered. we desire and are pushing for a process that instills integrity to the budget process. integrity is the highest human value we have. we must change the way washington works. we must require a budget process that is accountable, predictable and truthful. and this honest budget act is certainly a step in the right direction. and i want to thank you all again for being here today. and now i'm going to turn to senator kay bailey hutchison and her colleagues for a few remarks. thank you. >> thank you so much. is wonderful to have so many of our colleagues willing to come out and say that this is an important bill. and it's kind of a technical bill because it doesn't have the budget cuts in it.

but if there is one thing that stands out to me, it is when we have an emergency funding bill that comes up. and it's for an unexpected expense in our military or it's a disaster where we have wildfires or hurricanes or tornadoes. and then all of a sudden, you see things being put on this bill and we call it a christmas tree because there are things that are not relevant to the emergency. if we could just make sure that we have a real budget which this bill will do, that we work from a budget that we stick to a budget and that we have emergency funding only when it's a real emergency, that in itself will help the transparency and the honesty and integrity that is going to be required if we are going to cut the deficits and get our economic stability back on track.

and that's what all of us want to do. thank you. >> senator enzi? senior budget member. >> thank you. first i'd like to thank the house for actually passing a budget last year. the united states has been without a budget now for over 1,000 days. and the budget they passed took a lot of flack but it was a budget. and it had the potential to solve a lot of problems. so now we're here today to demand a budget, but also to ask for one that's honest. it shouldn't take an accountant to tell you when they are fudging on the numbers. but it does. we steal from trust funds. we take money that will come in over a ten-year period and say we're going to pretend like we got it over a two-year period. and fund some new programs. not eliminate debt that we've got. not make the united states more responsible, more respected, more in a position where they can continue to be the strongest

country in the world. and that's a problem that we've got to solve. so it's time that we got rid of the gimmicks. it's time we got more transparency in the budget, but it's very important that we have a budget. >> thank you, mike. our senator's numbers have grown and so all the house members are not speaking, but if you -- would any of you -- i want all of you to come and introduce yourself and say a few words. >> so i'm bob corker. i strongly support what martha and jeff have put forward. one of the greatest frustrations here is knowing that so much of what happens in the budgeting process is make believe. what's it's worth, i voted for no appropriations bills this year. none. out of frustration about the fact that we continue to appropriate and spend money and yet will not do the tough work to actually pass a budget where you have to go through the grueling exercise of making that

happen. so i'm very strongly supportive and thank the -- these two leaders in the house and senate for their leadership on this issue. >> thank you. i want to thank all my colleagues for being here. this is a terrific turnout. and it's because honesty and budgeting always make sense but it particularly is needed right now. we're looking at recordoaring d. yesterday the congressional budget office tells us that we're looking at trillion dollar deficits into the future and actually adding trillions of dollars more debt in the next ten years if we continue on this trajectory. and it is hurting the economy right now. it's like a wet blanket over the economy, creating uncertainty, unpredictability and keeping us from creating the jobs we all want to see. let me mention three things this would stop. first of all, right now, in congress, we typically evade spending caps simply by designating something an emergency. this would stop that process, one, by being sure you had to

have not just a majority vote but a three-fifths vote to move forward with an emergency and better defining what an emergency is. it's a way, frankly, over the years, congress has done a lot of spending it shouldn't have done. second, congress can cover up deficit limit breaches by shifting tax payments or shifting spending reforms a couple of days into a fiscal year. sometimes with the tax side, taxes are brought back to a fiscal year to show maybe within a five-year period or ten-year period there's more revenue than there really is. same with the spending side. sometimes spending is put off a few days into a fiscal year. this legislation would keep that from happening. it's a way in which over the years there have been a lot of gimmickry and increased spending that's been hidden from the american people. finally, one that i really like. it would stop congress from bailing out the highway trust fund by actually hiding the cost of the new spending. so when congress transfers funds into the trust fund and sometimes this is tens of billions of dollars, often it's not counted as an outlay. meaning it's not counted as new

spending and yet it is. these were three examples i wanted to throw out as an example of what this good legislation would do. so i thank martha and jeff for promoting it. i'm encouraged by the great turnout today. >> thanks for coming here. my name is ron johnson. an honest budget. what a concept. it's amazing that we actually have to pass a law. but the first thing we ought to do is we actually do in the senate, we have to pass a budget. it's the minimum the american people expect us to do. and so from my standpoint, i'm an accountant. my background is in business. this is the first time in 33 years in my dealing with a financial entity, and let's face it, the united states government is the largest financial entity in the world. i've been operating within this financial entity without a budget. so we need to certainly as senate republicans, hold the democrats' feet to the fire. senator harry reid's feet to the fire pass a budget on time by april 15th. i hope the members of the press

will also hold the democrats accountable. thank you. >> i'm saxby chambliss from georgia. it is truly a shame we have to come out here and force the hand of the democrats by passing a law saying you guys truly do have to present a budget. your constituents want to see how much money we're going to spend. and i commend jeff and olympia and martha for coming forward with a meaningful proposal that not only says that you have to pass a budget, but that also you have to be responsible in the way you do it. you can have the greatest budget in the world and have all the right numbers in it, but if you don't have enforcement mechanisms in place, like requiring the right number of votes as this particular bill does, moving the 303 point of order from 51 votes to 60 votes, for example in the senate. then all of the great numbers in a budget mean nothing. that's the type of enforcement mechanisms we need to have in place, and i'm very pleased to

stand beside all these guys in a bicameral way and say it's time we got more responsible and more transparent in our budget process. >> i'm mike lee from utah. and i think it's significant that they say you can fool some of the people some of the time but you can't fool all of the people all the time. that, nevertheless, hasn't stopped congress as an institution from doing whatever it can to fool a lot of the people over a very prolonged period of time. that's why this legislation is so important. the fooling can happen only as long as those who were aware of what's happening do nothing and remain silent. so i'm grateful to senator sessions. i'm grateful to the other sponsors of this legislation for bringing it forward. for making sure we're telling the american people what we're doing. when congress doesn't balance its budget it needs to level with the american people. when it incurs a deficit of 1 to

$1.5 trillion a year it needs to tell the people what that deficit actually is and what the truly liabilities are on the books. so that it can't make it look like we're balancing what we're not and it can't make it look like we're borrowing less than we are. i commend the sponsors and urge all of my colleagues in both houses and both parties to support this legislation. thank you. >> thank you, martha, for letting us go. we've got a 1:00 that most of our members have to be at. we turn it over to you. >> thank you to our colleagues in the senate for your leadership. anyone who needs to leave, please feel free. >> i think i'm batting first here for the house members. i need to get everybody ready here. we have a news flash. government has been lying to hard-working taxpayers about how we spend money. here's your follow-up story, though. the american people know it, all right? they know it already. and that's the joke that has been going on at so many different levels of government. and i got to tell you that they

know in their heart. they know in their gut when they are looking around and sitting at their kitchen table knowing they have to put their budget together. knowing they have to run a small business like my small sand and gravel business. as i have to go in and figure out how i'm going to pay my employees, keep their health insurance. are we going to do uniforms for them this year? what about a new loader that i have to buy? those are the tough decision vis to make. i just met with my new governor from much this morning who is here talking about how to work on unemployment insurance and how to make sure we get retraining back to our states. those are the tough decisions that our colleagues at state level to v to do. and michigan unfortunately, unlike our federal government, has a balanced budget requirement in its institution. governor snyder has to go in and make those tough decisions. what do we do at the federal level? completely different. and that is a reasonable expectation that we would have. it's sort of like saying, well, if i'm sitting around my kitchen table and things are getting really tough and i'm not sure i'll be able to pay my mortgage.

we're going to cancel that premium cable package and go with the basic cable package. i'm going to take that ten years of savings. i want to put it in this year's budget. now my numbers work. that's not how real life works, though. that isn't how any business works. it's not how any government should work. and i appreciate so many of my senate colleagues bringing up the failure of leadership that we've seen out of harry reid. you all know what this is. you've all seen it, right? most of us are walking around carrying one. it's an ipad which didn't exist 1,008 days ago when you all last passed a budget. you're right. i think it was senator sessions who said or maybe senate enzi who said we took some heat back home when we passed some very difficult budgets. the paul ryan budget out of the house of representatives. those were some tough discussions. but those were the right discussions we needed to have as an american people. so it's been referenced that there's a lot of technical things in this.

it may be technical, but it's also oh, so basic. it's time that the government be honest, open and transparent with the american people how it spends their hard-earned dollars when they entrust that to us here in the house of representatives and in the senate. so thank you very much. martha, i'm not sure who is going to go next. but we'll -- >> all right. my good colleague and friend from arkansas, tim griffin. >> arkansas. >> i said arkansas. >> thank you for your time. what we're talking about here is injecting common sense into the budget process. what we've got now is, as some before me have said is deceptive. the thing that struck me when i got here is that when we were looking for savings in the house and the senate does it and both parties do it, but we're looking for savings eight, ten years down the road. and we count that as saving

money. well, the truth is, we don't know what's going to happen eight years down the road. in fact, the congress eight years from now will decide what's spent eight years down the road. we don't have a clue what's going to happen eight or ten years down the road. so to go eight or ten years down the road and supposedly identify money that is or is not going to be spent is a joke. it's a joke. it is actually deception. and we need to stop doing it. and i applaud all the folks on this stage. i applaud representative roby for introducing this bill. and i know we've got a lot of work to do to get this passed. i think it's high time that we do it. and as some of my colleagues have said, a good start would be for harry reid to pass a budget. thank you all.

>> corey gardner. >> thank you. thank you, martha, senator sessions, for convening this today and to talk about the honest budget act. i'm corey gardner from colorado's 4th congressional district. growing up in a state, we sell farm equipment there. and under the way congress works, if we were to buy a piece of farm equipment today and then decide we were going to pay for it next year, under congress' rules, we'd be saving money this year and could get to buy another one without paying for it. if we did that in our personal lives if we did that in our businesses, we'd be broke and we'd be in jail. somehow congress, that's business as usual. is time we end the charade and start being honest to the american people. and they get it. what i have -- i've had over 60 town meetings now in colorado. normally i don't hear from somebody stand up, what about this rescission? what about this budget authority? what about this budget outlay? what about this chimp or that chimp. you know what they say?

washington is spending more money than you have. you are spending money you don't have and the people who are going to pay for it are our children and grandchildren. this -- the honest budget act brings reality to congress. the reality that we are broke and we can't fool the american people because they are on to washington. and it's time that this place live up and live under the same rules that every man and woman in this country has to live under. making their ends meet, meeting their obligations and being honest about money that we don't have. that's why i'm glad to support this bill and glad that you've got a great group of people who are committed to bringing honesty to washington and making sure that we change business as usual in this town. >> my name is austin scott. i'm from georgia's 8th congressional district. like many of the 89 freshmen republicans, about 12 months ago, i was a small business owner. working through a recession and doing the things we needed to do in our budget to make sure that

the business was able to continue to operate. we would take our budget, month by month and set our revenue estimate for the year based on the worst month that we had had in the prior 12 months. in washington, the federal government bases their budget on the best possible revenue estimate. no matter how unrealistic it might be. that's the fundamental difference between main street and washington. and it is the primary reason we have a $16 trillion national debt that main street will have to pay back. yesterday the congressional budget office announced that the united states' deficit with run $1.1 trillion for 2012. this a direct result of budget gimmicks that have been allowed to continue, regardless of which party was in control. i'm one of the 89 members of the freshman class, as i said. we have more than 300 children and grandchildren. my son is 12 years old. his name is wells.

we were sent to washington to fundamentally change the way washington does business. it is a process that is broken. it is a process that is breaking many americans. the honest budget act is the first step, and they say the first step is the hardest. but i say this is a necessary step that we must take. the honest budget act should not only put us on track to have a genuine budget. it will also put us on the path towards a balanced budget. and in georgia, we have a balanced budget amendment to our constitution just as most other states do. and i'm from the appropriations committee in the state of georgia. now, every state balances their budget. every city balances their budget. every county. every school system. every home has to balance their budget. it's not too much to ask that washington balance its budget as well. martha, i want to thank you for this piece of legislation that can help get this country back on track and thank you for

allowing me to be a part of it. steve? >> i will be -- i will be brief. i'm steve sutherland. and i'm from panama city, florida, representing florida's 2nd congressional district. i will tell you, this wonderful piece of legislation, the honest budget act, i am saddened to tell the american people, honest budget, washington, d.c., has neither. neither. this is a joke. it angers me. it breaks my heart. my father told me when i was a child. son, tell the truth and you won't ever have to have a good memory. we are lying to the american people. my god, we are lying to ourselves. it is embarrassing what we have become here. the american people know the

truth. we believe several of us know the truth. it is time. it is time that we act and practice courage. and i applaud representative roby. i applaud senator sessions for putting their money where their mouth is, for stepping forward and implementing god-given principles of honesty and integrity. you cannot build a marriage or a home without honesty. you cannot build a church, an organization, a family business that i come from, and you cannot build a government apart from honesty. we owe an apology, and i beg the forgiveness of the american people. i am sorry for where we are. it breaks my heart. but this wonderful piece of legislation hopefully will say to the american people, we want to do better. we will do better. and our commitment with this act

is to end the games as usual. to be truthful. to be honest. and to do something that washington has not enjoyed for an awful long time. a newfound integrity with those we represent. thank you so much for being here. and i pray that our colleagues in both houses realize the serious nature of my words and act appropriately. thank you. >> thank you, congressman sutherland. and i do believe you touched on the fundamental point there that we need responsibility in this congress, and we haven't had it. the house did, indeed, pass a very important, realistic budget that altered the debt course of america. it put us off the road to decline and on the road to prosperity. senator harry reid, the democratic leader, said it would be foolish for us to pass a

budget. he didn't mean that -- and i've said this on the floor. he knows i've said it. he didn't mean that because it's foolish for america that we would have a budget. he meant for the politics of the senate because as has been suggested, you pass a realistic budget today, some people are going to be complaining. it's not easy. it takes courage. so i thank all of you for having the courage to produce a budget, and i am embarrassed and apologized the united states senate has gone over 1,000 days without having a budget. so, martha, thank you for introducing it. i'm hopeful senator snowe and i believe she couldn't be with us today, but olympia and i believe that if the house can move this bill to success, i don't believe there can be many logical and principal arguments against it. and i think it would increase dramatically our ability to get it passed. thank you for your leadership.

any questions that you'd like to -- yes. >> the debt now equals the size of the economy. s&p is warning of another downgrade. do you foresee the u.s. being downgraded again? >> well, that's very possible because we're not altering the debt course we're on. the experts who are looking at our economy, and we've had a number of them testify before the budget committee. basically have said we should have started last year. the debt commission said we should have started last year. what they planned to reduce the deficits over a period of time that would gain credibility in the markets. so the president in his state of the union message, i was just deeply disappointed that he made no reference to the threat that debt may mean -- america faces. so this is going to be hard to do it without the president's leadership. without him looking the american

people in the eye and saying we really do have a problem. but as someone has said earlier, i think the american people are getting it. and that was a big factor in the last election. we're not on the right course. we don't change this course, we'll ton see downgrades. and i would quote erskine bowles. and allan simpson said this nation has never faced a more predictable crisis. quote. and what he was saying if you don't change the debt course, we're going to have a financial reckoning. it's just a question of when. mary? >> senator if all these gimmicks were eliminated tomorrow, how much money would that save? secondly, what if any application does any of this legislation have to -- >> it's $350 billion. we score over five years would have been saved had thisll