medicare as you know it, yet it's the republican plan that spends more money on medicare than on interest because we get our spending under control. expect when you take a balanced approach, as we do as republicans, that actually balances. instead of the taxing and spending our way deeper, deeper into debt. i learned this morning the ranking member expect to be offering their own budget next week. i welcome that. i would guess, knowing the ranking member as i do, that the budget h go probably will balance eventually. i think if that does nothing else, it will draw stark contrast to the dramatic failings that this president has given us over the course of his budgets for the last four years. so with that, mr. chairman, i was going to yield some time to the gentleman from texas but he stepped out. at this point i'll yield back and get a chance to let mr. flores speak later on this morning. >> at this time, we will move over to mr. price for his part of the explanation. i yield ten minutes to dr.

price. >> thank you, mr. chairman. let me commend you and the members of this committee and the staff who have worked diligently to come up with whatible is a wonderfully positive and visionary document and getting us on a path to economic vitality. we're here today to consider a budget which is our positive blueprint for how we can and must address a predictable and looming crisis while putting our nation on a path to future prosperity. american people, as i've on then said, are smarter than the politicians here in washington. they understand that washington cannot continue to spend beyond its means. ignoring this crisis, which we believe the president does, clearly with his budget, is absolutely irresponsible and reckless. that's why we're bringing forth this budget resolution to reduce en broken bureaucracy, and to ensure that taxpayers and job creatorsephar.

this budget is a bold vision for our nation's future. it restores fiscal responsibility, by cutting he$5 the first year alone, and trillions over the years to come. it will end the president's annual trillion-dollar deficits -- remember the president's budgets hav trillion-dollar deficits plus for the last four years. we will do so without taking any more money out of the pockets of the american people. the house republican budget would save more than $5 trillion ecade when compared to the president's budget and would do so without relying on the tax hikes that the president th solutions in this budget that puts us on a path to and full rf the president'sas a physician, that the health care law is a threat to thrdabity, to the accessibility, and to the quality of health care in our country.

to pct health care that we hold dear, our budget includes patient-centered health reforms that empower individuals and eigovernment, to make health care decisions. our budget saves and improves and strengthens medicare by empowering seniors to choose from a less of guaranteed, mr. chairman -- i want my colleagues to hear this -- guaranteed coverage options. including traditional medicare. democrat colleagues do is to raid medicare of nearly $700 billion while providing no mechanism to pay this without structural reforms, the only option left to harness the skyrocketing costs inent ice co. not surprisingly, the president intends to implement that through the independent payment advisory board. the president's health care law by raiding medicare and

empowering the independent payment advisory board to determine medicare payments is a direct threat to the vital lifeline for seor, r budget emp 50 million seniors to choose a plan that best suits their needs. rather than allow 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats to do medicare m.rtis reforms that will save and strengthen this program for american seniors. seniors will have an opportunity to choose a health care plan or traditional medicare, whichever fits their needs best. no changes are made for those in and near retirement. now, no doubt we will likely ti accusations today as we've heard in the past. in fact, we've heard them already. we'll hear that a defense of the broken status quo here in washington when what we need is a positive vision for our country's future, not more demagoguery. many would apparently prefer to

ignore medicare's fiscal challenges and issue false criticisms and accusations. we believe it's our responsibility to bring ideas to the american people, honest ideas that engage in an honest and factual debate. there's no denying that our health care programs currently are unsustainable from standpoint. our budget is the answer to this looming crisis. and with a complete and full repeal of the president's health care law, coupled with a guarantee, house republicans are advancing health reforms that simultaneously move us toward a balanced budget and a stable financial future. we tackle the fiscal challenges facing our nation and do so without taking more money out of the pockets of hard-working american taxpayers. some i'm pleased to participate in the presentation of this budget and pleased to support this budget as we move forward out of committee and on to the floor. i'm honored to yield the remainder of diane black who will also

discuss the health care issues. >> thank you, chairman price. let's just start out with a couple of simple facts that i think no one in this room canr . first of all, we have 10,000 baby boomers added to the rolls each day. medicare's exponti cau the prog bankrupt in ten years. the congressional budget office and the medicare and medicaisn alarm bell about dwindling finances, and we must act now. we cannoton ignore the facts. over 46 million americans righ health care. and something must be done to save this vital program for future generations. we must protect and preserve medicare for bothseurors and ou president's budget proposal failed to address the medicare's grim future.

now, instead, what we have on the books now is a 15-member board that is charged with cutting costs and denying care to our seniors. the independent payment advisory board established in the health care law would cut physician payment rates,to stop seeing me patients. and this board makes senior care harder to pacts bureaucrats be patients and their doctors..spe independent payment advisory board and savesture generationss the power away from the government bureaucrats and puts it where it needs to be, greater choice. this plan for medicare is based on bipartisan proposal that does three things. it does not make anywh are in o retirement. it offers guaranteed covere see

options for our seniors. regardless of their pre-existing cases or health history. three, it's financed by a premium support payment that's suggested to provide additional financial assistance to those who have a er less healthy seniors. and less to the wealthy. the medicare plan, including a traditional medicare option, would compete against each other to offer higher quality care at lower costs. is clear. we can continue to stick our heads in the sand and support the status quo, which just hurts seniors through denial of care and bankrupts medicare, or our plan to save medicare and provide more choice. for me, the choice is clear. and i yield back my time. >> mr. chairman, if i seconds. i think it's important for people to appreciate, we're going to hear a lot oere side,

on ter issue of first, our budget includes a guaranteed option for seniors. a guaranteed option secondly, it is voluntary for the senior to select the kind of health coverage that's best and right for them. whether it's the traditional fee for service medicare or something else they desire. third, it's bipartisan. it's guaranteed, it's voluntary, and it's bipartisan. it's the kind of work the american people are demanding we do here and i'm pleased to support it. >> i think i'll add to that, which is, a certain cannot be denied a plan if they choose it. regardless of their health condition, regardless of their income. and in fact, what we're saying is, if you're a lower-income individual, you'll get a complete coverage. as you get sicker, you get more coverage to make sure your payments yoou'rura wealthy indi you will not be subsidized as much because you have the ability to subsidize yourself

more. that's what we're doing. this idea has bipartisan roots dating back to the early 1990s. this idea was the product of th medicare. this idea has been talked about for a long time as the best, most humane way to save the medicare guarantee. and if we stay on the status quo, which the president's budget changed the medicare we will see not only medicare going bankrupt, we will see the promise of medicare being violated for current seniors. and the way in which that promise will be violated on an the 15 people the president will appoint to this board where they make the decisions. at the end of the day,power? in the hands of the beneficiary? or in the hands of these 15 political appointees?

with that, i yield ten mines to mr. ribl reform and economic growth. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and good morning, everybody. our tax code is in 2008, the irs couldn't even answer 76 million phone calls that they received. out of 167 million phone calls they received for assistance, they were only able to answer 53% of them. our reform helps correct that be my comments at the end but i want to yield some time, i'd like to yield two colleague mr. hillscap. >> thank you, i appreciate that, congressman ribl. the contrasttwand the president has been mentioned is very vast $1.9 trillion in new taxes. but this budget proposes an

it's a vision that champions the power of entrepreneurs, not the heavy hand of government. it's a vision that trusts the intell the wisdom of bureaus. pundits n november 6, we need to focus on two more important dates. april 1st and january 1st. april 1st, th the highest corporate tax rate in the entire industrialized world. japan, sweden, mexico, china, the u.s. will surpass them all. this is no feat to brag about, it's an embarrassing fact. high tax rates discourage domestic and international investment. why invest in america to create jobs when the te elsewhere? just ask apple computers. on january 1st, a tsunami of tax increases will and the entire economy unless congress and the president act, america will suffer anat the en year. everyone's income tax rates will go up. everyone's. small business and capital will

be choked. in essence, my opinion, any recovery we're now starting to enjoy will come to a complete halt. while the president tries to make this about wall street, he forgets this is about main street. when the america people see washington, all they see is debt and dysfunction and proposed tax increases. instead of taking more from hard-working taxpayers, they're going to need to keep more money in the hands of small business owners who will grow our economy. as shopworn as the phrase is, washington's problem still remains that it spends too much, like in the president's budget, not that it taxes too little. i yield back my time. >> and thank you. i'll take two minutes and yield them to the gentleman from new hampshire. >> thank you. thank you, mr. chairman, for your work on this budget as well as our colleagues on the committee. i think we have established a path to prosperity that is a clear difference between what the president of the united states supports, which continues to be higher taxes, higher spending, larger deficits,

larger long-term debt. when it comes to a pro-growth economic policy and a policy of tax reform, i'm very pleased that this budget produces a great opportunity for fairness, simplicity, and competitiveness. not just for our small business owners and job creators, but gives us the opportunity to be a worldwide competitor once again. the most important thing for outside economy is to have reasonable regulatory reform, reasonable tax reform, a spending level that gets back to historic levels, under 20%, and ensures that we see the closing of the gap of expenses versus outlays. our budget does i think three things. number one, we can get to balance as quickly as four to six years, depending on certain market indicators and economic policies if they're put in place. secondly, we reduce our

short-term deficit by several hundred billion dollars and continue to ensure declines. and finally, we ensure that this model occurs with a reform of the tax code. we hear when we go home every week that we want simplicity, we want fairness, we want competitiveness. on the individual side, we reduce the brackets from 6 to 2, 10 and 25%. we also eliminate the something that is blatantly unfair to americans across the nation. on the corporate side, we ensure competitiveness with the rest of the world. we reduce the rate down to 25%. and we shift to a territorial system. something i believe has bipartisan support in this committee and wind the congress. we need to act now to ensure that our country a long-term economic crisis. and i think we go a long way in this budget proposal to ensure

thd yield back the balance of my time. >> i thank theye from new hampshire and i yield two minutes of time to the gentleman from georgia. >> i thank the ge chairman for all his hard work on this budget, i thank the whole team for this work. this budget is really about choices. that's what i came freshman to kedeal with. this it comes to the tax section of this, the prime area tool that members of both sides have used to manipulate behavior in this coun i have a copy of the president's budget sitting here beside me. it's interesting that his proposal to get american jobs back in this country is to ther another tax deduction, to encourhome. the question is why are we running folks off? why is it folks that have already started a business, why don' as my friend from kansas said, when you have the single highest corporate tax rate in the world,

it's no surprise that this is what wist. budget is said to the american people, you are the driver american economy. your choices will always be better choices than the ones we will make for you. code, or even expand the tax code, to make it more of for manipulation, we've chosen to do away with deductions, ckg of winners and losers that have characterized this town for far too long. what makes this budget so special is this't something that we've sat here in a vacuum and crafted, it's something that the ways and means committee isate're going to be able to move forward, actually bring to the law of the land. i thank the gentleman for yielding. >> thank you very much. i will yield a minute and a half flores. >> thank you. i appreciate you yielding and i thank the chairman and all of the committee members for their hardwer tax rates work.

all you have to do is look at history. i like to bring this back to the real world instead of the theoretical world. what did john kennedy w a toug environment when he was sworn in in19? he lowered taxes. he lowered t marginal rate from 93% to 70%. he instituted the investment tax credit so people would invest in businesses. those are the things thaheanhe country get back on track economically. what did ronald reagan do when he inherited a difficult environment? he lowered taxes and simplified tax rates. now, this is happening around the world too. this is brand new news from great britain. british treasuryosborn on wedne that government will accelerate a cut in the corporate tax rate. they're going to lower their corporate tax rate from 26% to 25%. proposing to do. in addition, instead of raising taxes on higher income workers,

they're lowering the top marginal tand re's the reason t they did it. many of you may recall they raised tax rates in 2009 onand . it said the high are tax rates created massive distortions and raised little extra revenue. osborn said other changes in tax laws would ensure the nation's wealthiest because you have greater economic growth. what we want to do is grow the economic pie for everybody and produce higher revenues for te government because we have higher activity. thank you and i yield back. >> thank you. i thank the gentleman for if yo an, we're ahead of schedule. finish up, thank you, mr. chairman. while ourotr side want to demon most successful among us, house republicans want to code. this is the internal revenue code. over 10,000 pages long of e vomf

ad these 10,000 pages, of which o readable. and while it's commendable to say, let's attack big even polio say let's attack big oil, get rid of subsidies for if you're going to ignore big auto, big solar, big technology, big labor, if you're going to ignore everybody else because p you've solved nothing. the real problem is a big, complex, cumbersome tax underst. no american understands thi s. house plan does, mr. and elimi corporate welfare finally.ernme the way of picking winners and loses. it lets our natural, free economy choose who will win, who lo americans, particularly our lowest-income

americans, to excel and grow and expand their own businesses and their own opportunity. you can never, ever pull the erty. you can never bring the poorest of americans, the most needful of americans, up by simply pulling someone else down. our plan cleans up this tax code. it reduces rates, eliminates loopholes, simple fitds the tax code. it finally does what both sides have said they wanted to do for decades. with that, mr. chairman, i yield back. >> thank you. at this time i'd like to yield ten minutes to mr. cole to talk about ensuring a strong national defense. >> thank you vmu chaim. i'll yield myself three minutes to start. normally on our side of the aisle we're very critical of the president for spending too much. the one area in this budget where in our view he spends too much is actually defending the country over the next under the president's budget, on defense what this committee

by $500 billion. that's easy to talk about that just in terms of dollarsnd i tht it into what it really means. less manpower, less capability. we'll actually reduce the number of soldiers we have by 72,000 in the next five years. we'll reduce the number of marines we have by 20,000 in the next five years. we'll retire over 200 aircraft permanently next year. over a five-year period we'll reduce the number of tactical fighter wings we have from 61 down to 54. the end of the budget have5 fews than we projected having. in that's very dangerous. in addition to will be compounded unless we responsibly deal with sequestering. the presidt agrees with that that sequester is a bad idea.

order of magnitude, if that were to happen on top of what the president has proposed in his e another 100,000 soldiers in the united states army. those are the projections of the american military. so dealing with i an extraordinarily important thing for the defense of the country. the president action to be decries sequester, doesn't want to happen, but in his budget has presented us no way to avert sequester. the republican budget does that siblan way. in fact, this budget does what the super committee should have done and looks at long-term entitlement spending,justments but maintains our defense capability in the meantime. n addition, thises $200 billio president's proposed to cut from cleagues on the house armed services committee, on the house defense work with the american military,

work with the administration, as to how business to use thoresou. yet at the end of that process, it's worth noting, we still make a tremendous contribution to de. this committee will spend $300 billion less in aod tn projecte spend only a year ago. it's not as if defense is somehow escaping the budget imperative that we're all dealing with. it's just making a responsible contribution. history's taught us when it comes to defense, first place is the only safe place. this budget preserves our ability to defend ourselves, work with andefallies, and nothing, my colleagues, is more expensive than war. war brought on by weakness is cleagues angerous war of all. on the budget committee and our chairman for acting in a very responsibl fiscal challenge we have. but understanding that at the end of the day, primary obligation is to defend

its people and we're able to do that under this budget. with that i'd like to yield three minutes to calornia who an the defense appropriation subcommittee, a long-time member of the house armed services committee, mr. calvert. >> thank you. thank you, mr. cole, appreciate you sharing the time.tryt war. i just left a meeting with general allen and gener for the last hour, what's going we have00forces, as you all know, deployed in staying a there indefinitely, but we must ensure that our troops have the equipment and the support they need to accomplish the mission. we also must ensure that promises made to our veterans are kept. we have turmoil across the globe. we have near threats such as a .

we have rogue iran and north korea. north korea just announced the d with a test on intercontinental missile. anif just testing satellites in space, that's an interesting theory. we have asymmetric groups such as the al qaeda organizations. joint chiefs of staff dempsey right here in this room told this committee that it is the most dangerous time that h experienced in his long-decorated 38-year career in the military. this is not the time, as mr. cole pointed out, further increase the risk to our forces and the ability to secure the homeland. the president's budget provides the bare minimum to our forces for fy 2013, wouldthemin later pland cuts over 10 years.

the gop budget on the other hand ensures congress fulfills the constitutional requirement for a strong national ef the fiscal realities that face us by incorporating the recommended efficiencies provided by the former gates and the current secretary panetta. i just want to point out again on the impacts of mthod and th accounts -- and the amounts. ability to protect our vital interests, our national interests around the world. tarynd mistake, sequestration signal to the world that we are superiority. this is unacceptable and reject sequestration as a means of addressing our instead the gop budget tackles sequestration head-on by responsibly dealing with the real drivers of our national

debt, mandatory spending programs. the choice is clear. we can either our collective heads in the sand as the president's budget does or we can be hoandnest make the hard choices now that willre tho be the beacon of opportunity a thank you. >> thank you. i'd next, mr. chairman, like to recognize my good friend, mr. aiken,ho career on the house armed services committee, one of the house's recognid >> thank you. i think sometimes as we get into the numbers and look at the may the big picture. i'd like to stand back and look have a pattern in american history, and tha nt is for the nextwar. and we weren't prepared for the war of independence. the war of 1812. eycapital, we weren't ready for that.

and we really weren't prepared for the great world wars. and when it came to korea, we o with no real backup for them. and it's fortunate that they didn't all get killed. time after time, we've cut our defense because things ok peaceful. now today, what we'rettin defen when things don't look peaceful. which seems to be a really bizarre thing for us to do. the republican budget turns that around and changes that. and maintains at least what's a reasonable level of defense. we're going to be dealing with the same number of billion dollars in defense as we had last year so we're holding that constant. obviously, the big sort of damocles is this idea of sequestration which was a bad idea to start with and it's not looking any better now. the democrat secretary of