businesses, high schools, we can create a series of pathways of success and it can be life long. and the great thing about community colleges is that they are flexible in the way that four-year institutions because of the way of the nature of those institutions, it's a little harder to do. community colleges can adapt and meet a need quickly. so a new business comes to town, we need machine tool operators or coders or whatever it is, potentially you can design something quickly that's effective and makes an immediate difference. so we've put a lot of resources into community colleges. we are highlighting these programs, encouraging the kinds of links that i just described, and we're going to keep on doing it. ok. let's see. right there.

she was very excited. >> my name is hellen and welcome to cleveland. we love this city, hard working city and hard working county. so thank you for coming. i have a two-part question. first, who is in your bracket? >> i wasn't that creative. i think kentucky is going to take it. but you know i had the one in -- i haven't won since my first year in office. clearly i'm not spending as much time watching college basketball as i once did. so i wasn't necessarily -- wouldn't necessarily take my bracket and copy it. although i expect i'm not the only person picking kentucky. >> i have, too. the second part of my question is since you've been in office, what has surprised you the most? >> that's an interesting

question. what's surprised me the most. i'll start by saying what has not surprised me. i'm not surprised by -- that desensey and determination and grit and resilience and hard work of the american people and the fact that they are not as divided as washington would seem to reflect. because i travel around the country a lot. but one of the great things about being president is you can pretty much go anywhere say, hey i want to come back. ok. and so you can go to factories and you can go to community colleges and you can go to national parks and you can go to every state and meet people,

and it turns out that what i talked about back in 2004, about this being a united states of america, it real sli true. outside of washington. and that's encouraging. that makes me happy. what has surprised me even though i had served in the senate was the continued difficulties in congress getting stuff done that shoornt be controversial. -- shouldn't be controversial. there are some issues i knew would be controversial. i mean, we know that if there's a debate in congress about abortion, that's going to be controversial. there's strong held views on each side, they're hard to reconcile. we understand that.

and that's part of the democracy and it never gets perfectly resolved. but i have been pushing for us to fund infrastructure since i came to office because we have $2 trillion worth of dilapitated roads bridges, suer lines, and then there's the whole new infrastructure that we have to build in terms of a smart grid that's more secured and reliable in terms of how we use energy and making it more efficient. there are broadband lines that still need to be going out into every part of the country. now, the recovery act that i passed with the help of these members of congress when we first came in didn't just help to avert recession. it also was the largest investment in infrastructure in decades. and we made significant progress.

for example, in just getting broadband lines out into rural areas. so we made progress on it. but we still have a whole bunch to do. and if you talk privately to our republican friends, they will say i know we really need to do infrastructure. well, why aren't we doing it? and the reason is the degree to which constant campaigning and sort of the polarization of the bases, and then the inability it seems to just agree on a core set of facts means even when some of our republican friends want to work with us, it's hard to do. they are worried that they will get attacked or they will be viewed as compromisers or they will get a primary challenge by

somebody further to the right. and it becomes hard to just get basic stuff done. and obviously the greatest example of this was when the government was shut down. or just recently, the threat that the department of homeland security was going to be shut down. we can have a significant debate about immigration. not everybody is going to agree with my view that we are a nation of immigrants and we have a broken system and we can craft an immigration agenda that holds into account folks who came here illegally, forces them to have a background check, they have got to pay back taxes but gives them a pathway and in turn strengthens our borders that's my view. it's good for the economy. i can pointed to the evidence. but i understand some folks won't agree with me. the notion, though that you would then threaten to not fund the very department that is responsible for securing our borders because you're mad that

our borders are not secured that's not a good way of doing business. so that surprise mess a little bit. and i think that the other -- there's a connected issue and i will make this last point and go to the next question. i think it's hard for voters to see why it is that things aren't working in washington. they get frustrated that they're not working but there's kind of a sense of well, a plague on both their houses primarily because the media is so splintered up. if you're watching fox news it's an entirely different

perspective than if you're watching ms nbc but there are hard cold facts about who is being responsible and who is not. and the challenges of making sure the voters are aware of that and then holding elected officials accountable for their position. that's why i talked about the budget. the republican budget will not end up getting passed. my budget won't get passed given i've got to work with a republican congress. but it's there are priorities in there and it's good for people to know what's this there and our democracy only works when we're informed enough to say, you know what i don't think we should cut medicaid for families that have a disabled child. that's not who we are. i know my neighbor who relies on that. that's important. i may not like obama, but if

i've got -- if we know that there's 16 million people who now have health insurance, and my health insurance hasn't been affected and in fact health care premiums across the board are going up at a slower rate than they have in 50 years it's not clear to me why i would want to have 16 million people not have health insurance who are then going to be going to the emergency room and i'm going to end up paying for them because somebody's got to pay for them. and i'm going to pay higher premiums. you know, that's -- it's that -- if we know what the issues are and who is taking what positions, then i think our democracy functions well. right now what happens is people just hear there's a mess, there's an argument, they're add it again. and then oftentimes people just

withdraw and don't vote. and then people are cynical and dissatisfied. and that actually empowers special interests and the status quo, which we want to discourage. all right. that was probably too long an answer. so let me -- that young man right there in the purple shirt, that was a good-looking shirt right there. yeah. >> how can you -- >> what's your name? >> nelson. i'm a high school student. >> what year are you in? >> junior. >> starting to think about colleges and all that? having to take all those tests? mailia is going through this. get enough sleep? >> yeah. >> good. all right. what's your question? i'm sorry. >> how can you inspire children

who want to follow a political career path to become the best they possibly can in the future and stuff like that? >> are you interested? >> mm-hmm. >> that's great. i'm proud of you for that. >> thanks. >> my most important advice is worry more about what you want to do rather than what you want to be. and what do i mean by that. i think there are a lot of folks who get into politics and they say to themselves, i want to be a -- blank. i want to be a congressman or i want to be a senator or i want to be a governor or i want to be a president. and so then their focus is on, i want to get that position. and that leads some young ambitious people to say well, it doesn't matter to me what i stand for as long as i can get the position.

and you end up maybe if you're talented enough getting the position but along the way you haven't really accomplished much. and if you do get into the position you don't know why you're there or what you want to do with it. and i think that politics and public service is an incredibly noble profession. but it's a hard life as these folks will tell you you're away from your family, you're under incredible scrutiny. people are criticizing you all the time. you miss birthday parties, you miss soccer games, you're on the road. you have chicken dinners and the chicken is not always great. you're not getting enough sleep. you're having to raise money. so the only reason to do it is

if you're getting something done. if you're helping somebody get health care or you're helping somebody get a job or you're making sure that our troops when they come home are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve and are getting the benefits that they've earned. or if you've tried to clean up the environment. you know -- [applause] >> so rather than think about, ok, i want that office what my advice to you would be start serving. what are you passionate about? what do you care about? do you care about some kids in your neighborhood who maybe don't have the same opportunities because they're poor? and that really bugs you? well start mentoring those kids and start volunteering at a boys and girls club and start getting your friends involved and organizing a fund raiser to

build a new playground. are you interested in the environment and you're worried about climate change? get started now. go find a group of like-minded people and talk to your members of congress and get educated about the issue and start figuring out through social media how you can form a broader organization to advance the cause. here's the good news. if you take that approach, then even if you don't get to that office you've done a world of good. and if you do get to that office it will be earned and you will have a sense of what's important to you and what your moral compass is. so you will be that much better as a congressman or a mayor or a councilman or what have you. so this is actually by the way pretty good advice generally,

not just for public service. because when i meet -- [applause] -- if you look at the most successful businesspeople, they are people who just love the thing they're doing. steve jobs loved computers. he loved design. so he's working and then turns out you get so absorbed in it you get pretty good at it. and so i always tell young people don't wait until you get there to do something. you can do something right now. [applause]

all right. a young ladies' turn. >> i'm lucy. i'm a student at hawkins. and i'm wondering, you said that the republicans they've never really changed their opinion of what to do. it's always tax cuts, tax cuts. and why do you think that they're always proposing tax cuts and never changing what they think we should do? >> well, you know, i -- that's a good question. look and -- and i want to be fair to their philosophy. i think they have a particular philosophy. at least today. now, keep in mind that every party changes over time. so the person who i consider the greatest president of all times, a guy named abraham lincoln was also the first republican president. there have been democrats who -- whose main goal was to block

civil rights. back in the 40's and 50's and 60's. so i want to be clear that our country works best when both parties are evolving and changing. and over certain periods of time democrats have been stupid and the republicans have had better ideas and vice versa. right now at least the core republican philosophy and belief is that the less government interferes with the marketplace, the better off we all are. some believe that because just philosophically they think government is a source of coercion and interference and telling you what to do, and they believe that everybody, as

long as they're not hurting anybody, should be free to do exactly what they want. some has to do with an economic theory that says capitalism and free government is great. so when government gets involved with regulations et cetera, is hurting economic growth. some believe that, look, if i'm out there and i'm making a whole lot of money, it's my money and i shouldn't have to pay taxes to pay for somebody else's school or somebody else's road or what have you. so there are a bunch of reasons why i think they have the philosophy that they've got. i think the problem right now is that we live in such a complicated big global society that what might be a sensible theory on paper doesn't always make sense in a real life.

so you may generally think, as i do that the market is the greatest source of productivity and job creation and wealth creation in history, but our history tells us that if there's a company that's out there making a lot of money but also pouring a bunch of pollution into the water, and it's -- it catches on fire and suddenly people can't fish there any more, people are getting sick, that it makes sense for us to have some regulations that say you know what, you can make your products, you can make a profit. that's great. but, you know, you're kind of messing things up and so we're going to say you can't just dump your pollution in the water. in theory you might say we

don't want government forcing itself in the interactions of people. but if our history shows that racial minorities or a gay person is discriminated, we make a value judgment that says this is an exception. you can kind of do what you want but when it comes to a hotel you can't decide you're not going to serve somebody of a particular racial or ethnic group. you've got a business you're -- we don't want you to discriminate. that's a principle that constrains your freedom because we think that is a value that we care about. so that's my philosophy is that you can have principles but then you have to apply them. and how they work in the real world and are they fair and are they just and are they generous

and do they work. there's got -- you've got to base some ideas on facts and our history. and i think sometimes that's not what happens. in washington. and you probably know somebody like that at school who it doesn't matter what happens, they keep on doing the same thing over and over again even though it doesn't work. einstein called that madness. last question. i'm going to take two more questions. all right. young people have gotten some good questions. so we're going to get not as young a guy here. go ahead. still pretty young. >> mr. president, you speak about the dysfunction in washington partly because people are trying to get reelected every so often. what about citizens united and

overturning that and getting some limits on campaign spending so that we bring some reality back to this situation? >> well, there's no doubt that among advanced democracies we are unique in the length of our campaigns, the almost unlimited amounts of money that are now spent, and i think it is bad for our democracy. and i speak as somebody who has raised a lot of money. i'm very good at it. i'm proud of the fact that part of the reason i was really good at it is because we were the first sort of out of the gate to -- not the first. but we really refined using the internet for small donations and to be able to pool a lot of ordinary folks' resources to

amplify our message. but i also got checks from wealthy people too. so it's not that i'm not good add it. i just don't think it's a good way for our democracy to work. i think first of all it makes life miserable on members of congress. particularly those in competitive districts. there is no doubt that it has an impact on how legislation moves forward or doesn't move forward in congress. it's not straightforward, i'm writing the check and here's my position. but there's a reason why special interests and lobbyists have undue influence in washington and a lot of it has to do with the fund raising that they do. and the degree to which it's spent on tv and the nature of just the blitzkrieg. you guys here in ohio you feel it. it's just every election season

you've just got to turn off the tv. it's depressing and it's all negative because we know the science has shown that people are more prone to believe the negative than the positive. and it just degrades our democracy generally. now here's the problem. citizens united was a supreme court ruling based on the first amendment. so it can't be overturned by statute. it could be overturned by a new court or it could be overturned by constitutional amendment. and those are extraordinarily challenging prosses. -- processes. so i think we have to think about what are other creative ways to reduce the influence of money given that in the short term we're not going to be able to overturn citizens united. and i think there are other ways for us to think creatively. and we have to have a better

debate about how we make this democracy and encourage more participation. for example, the process of political jerry mannedering i think is damaging to congress. i don't think the insiders should draw the lines and decide who their voters are because i think that it's -- [applause] -- and democrats and republicans do this. and it's great for incumbents but it means over time that people aren't competing for the center because they know if they win a democratic primary or republican primary they've won. so it pushes parties away from compromise in the center. i think that -- now i don't think i've ever said this publicly but i'm going to say this now. we be making it harder to vote,

we should be making it easier to vote. and -- but what -- i've said that publicly before. so my justice department is going to be vigorous in terms of trying to enforce voting rights. i gave a speech down in sem ma at the 50th anniversary that was incredibly moving for me and my daughters and the notion that this day and age we would be deliberatively trying to restrict the franchise makes no sense. and at the state and local levels you can push back against that and make sure we're expanding the franchise, not restricting it. in australia and some other countries there's mandatory voting. it would be transformative if everybody voted. that would counter act money more than anything. if everybody voted, then it

would completely change the political map in this country. because the people who tend not to vote are young, they're lower income, they're skewed more heavily towards immigrant groups and minority groups. and they're often the folks who are scratching and climbing to get into the middle class and they're working hard and there's a reason why some folks try to keep them away from the polls. we should want to get them into the polls. so that may end up being a better strategy in the short term. long term, i think it would be fun to have a constitutional amendment process about how our financial system works. but realistically, given the requirements of that process, that would be a long-term

proposition. all right. last question. it's a young lady's turn. so all the guys, you've got to put your hands down. all right. this young lady. she's had her hand up quite a bit. go ahead. >> hello mr. president. i am in seventh grade and i attend school at citizens leadership academy. my question is if you could go back to the first day of your first term and the first day of your second term, what advice would you give yourself? >> that's a good question.

you know i -- i would have told myself to anticipate that because the recession was so bad and so tough for so many people that i was going to have to be more aggressive in explaining to the public how long it was going to take for the recovery to take place. although -- this is a challenge that we had when we first came in. when p f.d.r. came in during the great depression, it had been so bad for two or three years that everybody understood , we're kind of bottomed out, and so he could come in and then just propose, here's what

we're going to do. and there was huge support because there had already been a track record of failure by the previous administration. when we came in, things were crashing but it hadn't yet shown up in the statistics. and it would take another eight, nine months before even a year before things really bottomed out. and i think people were nervous and they were scared the stock market was plummeting but people didn't know the depth of it like how many jobs we were losing and so forth. so i think i might have done a better job of preparing people so they knew what was coming. that would have helped explain why we needed to pass the recovery act. or why we needed to invest in the auto industry. and -- so i think we could have done a better job on that front than we did.

i think i would have closed guantanamo on the first day. i didn't because at that time, as you will recall we had a bipartisan agreement that it should be closed. my republican opponent had also said it should have been closed. and i thought that we had enough consensus there that we could do it in a more deliberate fashion. but the politics of it got tough and people got scared by the rhetoric around it. and once that set in, then the path of least resistance was just to leave it open even though it's not who we are as a country and is used by terrorists around the world to help recruit jihaddists. so instead we've had to just chip away at it year after year after year. but i think in that first couple of weeks we could have

done it quickly. i was thinking maybe i should have told myself to start dyeing my hair now. before people noticed. because by the -- a year in it was too late. by that time -- i'm just kidding. michelle thinks i look distinguished. let me just say it has been wonderful to be with you. i'll leave you with this thought. as discouraging sometimes as the news is and as certainly discouraging as the news out of washington sometimes it really is important for us to understand how well positioned we are for the future. we get white house interns in every six months. they're so smart and clever and

hard working and ideal listic. and i tell them if there was a time in history where you would want to be born and you were most likely to be healthy have enough to eat, not be subject to violence, not be subject to discrimination, not be subject to sexual assault, not to be abused by your government, the time would actually be now. and that's hard to imagine with all the terrible things that are happening around the world. but we made enormous strides. we've made enormous progress. when i was at that bridge down in selma and you think about where we were 50 years ago and where we are now, as challenging as -- as troubling as what has happened in

ferguson and in cleveland and in new york around some of those issues -- as much progress as we have nevertheless made, when you think about our economy and the fact that we have the best universities and the best workers and we still have the best scientific establishment and the most innovative companies, you know, we've got all the cards. we really do. i mean, life's tough and america has got problems. and they're hard to solve. and they're rarely solved overnight. and progress has never been a straight line. it's always zigged and zagged. and sometimes we go sideways and sometimes we even go backwards. but our trajectory is towards greater fairness and more

inclusiveness and more tolerance and more prosperity. and i want people to feel encouraged by that. because the longer i'm in this office actually the more proud i am of all the incredible things the american people do every single day. and our biggest enemy i think is this corrosive cynicism that tells us we can't do things. there is nothing this country cannot do. there's nothing cleveland cannot do. and that's because of you. thank you very much, everybody. [applause] ♪

>> the committee will come to order. we will proceed with conversation of the fiscal year 2016 concurrent resolution on the budget. i want to begin by thanking ranking member mr. van holland of maryland for working with me to develop an agreement for this markup that's closely follows what's been done in the past. our goal is to consider the budget resolution in a timely fashion. we have a long day ahead of us and i want to thank everyone in our cooperation. we will complete our work by midnight. in fact i hope we can finish sooner than mid night. we will begin by having presentations on the budget. 45 minutes controlled by the majority, 45 minutes controlled by the minority. i'll make an opening statement and then the ranking member will make his opening statement and after those opening

statements the majority will use the remaining time left in its 45 minute block and then the minority will use its remaining time left in its 45 minute block. any member that doesn't get an opportunity to speak during that period of time or has additional comments may submit them for the record. after the present dwrations are concluded, we will have a staff walk through in which our members may ask any questions. the walk through will be for one hour and the minority may ask any questions that they like with respect to the chairman's mark. and after the walk thru we'll proceed to the amendments in accordance with the agreement that we've worked out with the ranking member. and i'll describe that process in more detail when we get to that point. let me just make a comment about this great committee that we all love. and that is that by its very nature it generates passionate debate on both sides. our couple and our tradition is to set an example for the entire house and do so in a collegial manner.

our ideological disagreements don't have to result in personal attacks and i request and we will operate with the professional de corm and i thank you all for your cooperation in that request. i now recognize the gentleman from indiana. >> i thank the chair especially for that statement. scuke that consistent with clause 4 of house rule 16 the chairman be authorized to declare a recess at any time. >> wousmed -- without objection, so ord. we will now move into opening statements. i can't thank enough everybody who has been involved. when we look at america today, we see a nation that's not living up to its economic and leadership potential. too many of our neighbors are

out of work or living pay check to pay check. too many hardworking taxpayers are learning to do more with less while washington is unwilling or unable to solve the challenges with positive solutions. we know we can do better and we must do better. on behalf of the individuals the families, and the job creators all over this great country. those that get up every single day to do their part to make their communities safe and strong. the budget proposal we're considering here today is a plan to make washington more efficient, more effective, and more accountable to those that we serve. to create a genuine opportunity and a healthier economy. our plan honors our commitments to the american people so that we deliver real results. first and foremost, we balance the budget. we achieve $5.5 trillion in savings, eliminate deficits so we can begin to pay down the debt and avoid the fiscal crisis threatening our future. this isn't just some accounting

exercise. remember that every single dollar that's used to -- in taxes to pay taxes and every single dollar that's borrowed is a dollar that can't be used to pay the rent, buy a car sepped a child to college this will created measurable results that will benefit every single american. a healthier economy where folks can have more certainty. we avoid an out-of-control growth in our nation's debt and interest payments on that debt which by themselves will swallow critical spending priorities. we avoid future tax increases and true austerity measures that would farm families and job creators. our budget sets forth positive solutions to save and strengthen and secure programs like medicare and medicaid so they can actually deliver on the commitment that is we've made to the american people. and our budget we ensure that we're meeting our responsibility to provide for

the defense of our nation so we have a stronger, safer, more secure america. the brave men and women who protect our freedom need the resources to complete their mission. this budget honors our commitment to them their families, and to the veterans whose proud legacy they carry with them. in a dangerous world a future fiscal crisis would make the job of protecting and defending the american people that much more difficult. in fact the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff admiral mike mullin highest ranking member military in the nation was asked what the single greatest threat to our nation was and he said that's the debt. there can be no national security without economic security. as we all know too often washington focuses on short term political conversations rather than real problem solving where rhetoric takes the place of real results. in our budgeted we take an honest look at our vital government commitments, whether it's to seniors on medicare or veterans who serve this nation

with honor and distinction. and we make certain that the promises are kept and real results are achieved. when it comes to controlling spending, we do not ask the american people to bail out washington with higher taxes and more debt. we take our responsibility seriously and genuinely, we ginly address the drivers of that debt. our budget puts a premium on accountability and efficiency and effectiveness in all areas of federal government. we streamline government functions with regulatory authority to stop taxpayer dollars from being wasted on programs that simply are not working. we al acknowledge that the best ideas don't necessarily come from washington. year after year we see more power concentrated in washington with a one size fits all top down approach. america is a diverse nation. our states and local communities know best how to best serve their people. our budget realigns the

agreement the federal government has with local and state authorities to provide more choices. from health care and education states will be empowered to create their own solutions free of the onerous washington mandates and overregulation. this plan, this balanced budget for a stronger america, this is a blueprint for how we solve our nation's fiscal and economic challenges. the success of these ideas is dependent on the courage and the common sense of policy makers to break away from the failed policies of the past and pursue a new course, a hopeful course. we're ready to turn these words into actions and produce real results for the american people. again, i appreciate so much the diligent work of our members on our committee and their staffs and our committee staff for their work on this important endeavor. and i look forward to today sincerely, look forward to an open and honest and productive conversation.

i now recognize the ranking member mr. van holland. >> thank you, chairman price. as we gather here today, we face some good news, some bad news, and some very bad news. the good news is that the economy is improving and more americans are working. the private sector has now added 12 million new jobs over the last 60 months. it's not all rosy. many americans are still looking for work. but the unemployment rate has fallen to 5.5% and trends are good. the bad news is that americans are working harder than ever but their paychecks are flat. this is not a new problem. it has become a chronic problem that dates bat tock 1970s. as this chart shows, there has been a growing gap between the increased value workers are creating in the economy, which is that blue line, and the paychecks that they're taking home. worker productivity steadily

climbing paychecks flat lined. so where are the gains from that hard work going? well income gains from increased worker productivity have gone overwhelmingly to those at the very top of the income scale as this next chart shows. the red line are the income gains from the top 1%, everybody else pretty much flat line. so it's no wonder that people i talk to in maryland and around the country feel like they're running in place or falling behind. now, right after the last election there was some hope that republican leaders understood this problem. speaker boehner and republican senate leader mcconnell wrote in the "wall street journal" that they were hum bibbled the opportunity to quote help struggling middle class americans and deal with quote wage stagnation. but with today's republican budget the country gets the very bad news. they were just kidding.

this republican budget is very hard on hardworking americans and those looking to find a job. it says work harder, take home even less. it will do nothing to increase paychecks and take home pay for working families. in fact, it squeezes them even more. it will increase the tax burden on millions of families those in the middle class and those working to join the middle class. amazingly, it cuts higher education tax credits and ends the boost in the child tax credit. millions of americans will lose access to tax credits for affordable health care. the cuts in student loans and pell grants will make college less affordable and add to the already huge student debt load. seniors who have worked hard for a financially secure retirement will immediately have to pay higher medicare premiums bigger copays for

prehaven'ttive care, higher cost for prescription drugs and more for nursing home care. while this budget raises the costs and further squeezes hard working families students and seniors it paves the way to cut tax rates for millionaires, it is based on the tired and disproven theory that we can grow our economy through trickle down economics, a theory that ran aground in the real world under george bush where the only things that went up were the incomes of the folks who were already doing well and the deficit. everybody else fell behind. and while this budget will immediately make life harder in the daily lives of working families it also disinvests in our future. it slashes the part of the budget we use to invest in our kids' education from early education to k-12. it is a sad day when we start chopping away at the rungs of the ladder of opportunity in america. it dev states the investments we make in scientific research

and innovation, investments that have helped power our economy and kept us at the cutting edge of technology, provides no solution for the looming shortfall and the transportation trust fund. and by the way, when i say disinvest in america, this is not rhetoric. it's math. let me show you what it does over the next 10 years that horizontal line is the lowest level we've seen as a share of the economy invested in our education and scientific research since the 1950's. this takes us 40% below the lowest level since we've been keeping records. and it does it without balancing the budget. mr. chairman this budget doesn't come close to balancing. in fact, it takes budgets to a new level.

let me say what it does. it actually assumes the revenue and savings from the affordable care act while claiming it gets rid of the affordable care act. it doesn't account for the cost of almost $1 trillion in business tax cuts that our colleagues have called for. and it plays a shameless shell game with our defense spending. it would make enron accountents blush. now, most americans would agree that the policies in this budget cutting tax rates for the wealthy while increasing the tax burden on working americans, increasing costs on students and seniors cutting vital investments simply stacks the deck even more in favor of the already powerful. we can do better. we can do much better. and next week the democrats in the house will propose a budget that promotes a more rapidly growing economy with more broadly shared prosperity. that is the right direction for the country. i thank you mr. chairman and look forward to a vigorous

debate today. >> i thank the ranking member. we will now proceed to opening statements from members of the majority and we will use the balance of our 45 minutes following which the minority will use the balance of their 45 minutes and we will begin with the vice chairman of the budget committee. >> thank you mr. chairman. i want to thank you and the members of this committee for their commitment to rooo produce a responsible federal budget that balances in less than 10 years and empowers all americans to build a better life for themselves and their families. i mean both republicans and democrats. this is my fifth budget that i've been proud to be a part of. and in all those discussions with the majority and the minority members i would say we get a better product every year. this is the quickest that the budget balances in the last several that weevel done.

and it is in stark contrast to the president's budget. a budget that never balances, ever. this budget takes responsibility for actually addressing our $18 trillion national debt with another $100 or so on the way over the next 30 or 40 years. the president would like the american people to believe that we can continue down the path we're on spending money we don't have without any consequence. the average hoosier in my district understands that they can't spend more money than they make. at least not for long. and you certainly can't spend your way to prosperity. a balanced budget is crucial to giving individuals families, and job creators greater certainty for the future. it shows the american people that we are ready to make the tough decisions and hold government accountable for how it spends our taxpayer dollars our property. the budget reduces spending by $5.5 trillion without mr. van

hollen without tax increaseses and accounting gimmicks. it delivers real results promotes what's going on in the states the trust states, the laboratory of democracy. it demands accountability efficiency and effects from us in the federal government. this will truly balance our budget which will result in a stronger america and stronger future. even under this budget plan the federal government will still spend trillions of dollars annually and more than $43 trillion in the next 10 years. that is a lot of money. americans deserve to know that their hard earned property is being spent wisely. so as we fwee gin this markup today i encourage my colleagues to abandon the tired by now political and dog matic approach to how we talk about these programs. instead of asking how much more money can we throw at these programs, a simple formula that has at every observation not worked we must ask, are these programs working? and if not how can we improve them? how can we make them stronger

and sustainable for future generations? these are the questions that were asked as the house budget majority members croosted this product. i'm proud of this bucket and i commend the chairman -- budget. and i commend my chairman and cloogs for their diligent work. >> i yield to my colleague from new jersey. >> i begin by thanking the chair and committee for their hard work for the budget resolution this committee will present today. when president obama took office the federal debt stood at that time at $10.6 trillion. now the federal debt is now over $18 trillion. an increase of over 70%. so the debt now represents more than 100% of the g.d.p. what does that mean? americans owe more money to its creditors than the value of all the goods and all the services fro deuced in the united states in an ear tire year. this level debt put it mildly is unsustainable.

in fact the nonpartsen budget office states that our high and rising debt would have serious negative consequences for both the economy and the federal budget. admiral mike mullin perhaps put it best when he said that "the single biggest threat to our national security is our debt" so we do a disservice to the american people if we're not up front about the debt. as elected representatives of the american people we must be honest about the budget crisis facing this country. we must identify duplications areas of waste and opportunities for reform in all areas of spending including our enentitlements and defense spending. by ensuring that taxpayer dollars are wisely and responsibly spent we will strengthen and preserve our social safety net as well as ensure america's national security. so today could be the day that we embark on a new path where democrats and republicans work together in good faith and put forth a plan that transparently

and honestly balanced the budget. and i hope it is. that's why i commend chairman price for his efforts and urge all members to support the budget as he and his staff put forth together and put for us today. with that i yield back. >> i thank the gentleman. i recognize the gentleman from california. >> thank you, mr. chairman. the elephant in the room is the national debt that has doubled in 8 years. and on its current trajectory will sink this country. according to the cbo, within a decade the interest costs for this debt will exceed our entire defense budget. that is why the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff warned us that this was the greatest single threat to our national security and i might add that was 5 years and 4-1/2 trillion dollars of debt ago. we cannot provide for the common defense if we cannot pay for it. and history warns us that countries that bankrupt themselves aren't around very

long. the debt however, is driven princeably not by the one third of our spending that is discretionary but the two thirds that is mandatory. we cannot continue to ignore the increasingly dire warning that both medicare and social security will collapse on an entire generation of americans in just a few years. unless immediate steps are taken to restore them to solvency. for the past 4 years this committee and thishouse have passed budgets to address these issues bring us ball into balance within the decade, and thereafter pay down the enormous debt that directly threatens the prosperity and security of our children's generation. for four critical years, these budgets fell on deaf ears in the senate. fortunately with the new majority, we have the fleeting opportunity to enact a budget that averts the predictable crisis just ahead of us. that will involve compromises in policy, but in doing so we must not compromise the integrity of this budget document.

among the most chilling words in history attributed to louie the 15th, after us the flood. let that not be the epitaph of our generation. mr. price: i recognize the gentlelady from tennessee, miss blark. mrs. black: thank you, mr. chairman, for your leadership on this important issue. unlike the president's plan, this budget is a serious proposal that balances our budget and helps grow the economy. our nation is $18 trillion in debt, and if we want to preserve this country for our children and grandchildren, we must reform the way washington works. everyone knows that medicare will soon go bankrupt. and that's why i'm pleased that this budget proposal saves this important program for today's seniors and tomorrow's

retirees. by transitioning to a premium support program, we can preserve medicare for those who are in or near retirement and strengthen medicare for younger generations. furthermore, this budget obamacare's raid on the medicare trust fund and repeals obamacare's independent payment advisory board, an un-elected and unaccountable board of bureaucrats charged with making coverage decisions for medicare. despite what some critics say, this does not eliminate traditional medicare. instead, it ensures that americans will always have traditional medicare as an option. under this plan, every senior will have the support they need to get the care they deserve. those who attack this reform without offering a credible alternative are complicit in medicare's demise. i want to commend chairman price for leading on this issue and putting forward a solution to ensure that medicare can continue to deliver quality care for years to come. one way or another, this country will have to address

our out-of-control debt and deficits and this budget does so responsibly. thank you. i yield back the balance of my time. mr. price: i thank the gentlelady. i now recognizes the gentlelady from missouri, mrs. hartzler. mrs. hartzler: thank you, mr. chairman. first of all i want to commend you and the rest of the colleagues on this committee for building a fiscally responsible budget that goes a long way to address our out-of-control spending program and the debt the nation has fostered over the last few years. unlike the president's proposal, our budget repeals obamacare, most importantly, it balances. as i look at why this budget is important, i go back to the people in my district and how this impacts them. it's good for people because it helps them in areas where the government has overreached. the obamacare is hurting families. this budget provides health care that helps provide them choice.

people in my district are reeling from the energy costs. our budget helps provide a path to affordable energy, american energy independence. for the senior citizens in this country, who have uncertainty about the future of medicare and other safety net programs, we take steps here to address that, preserve and protect t we encourage entrepreneurship which is so important to allow our economy to grow. we reduce the tax burden, the families in my district are facial, and all of our american families are facial april 15. it's important. it will reduce the tax burden and it gets us to a path out of the crushing debt for all of the children in our district. and what their future entails. i commend the chairman and this committee for putting forth this budget and truly it will provide a balanced budget for a stronger america. i yield back. mr. price: i thank the gentlelady. i now am pleased to recognize the gentleman from north carolina, mr. rice. mr. rice: our economy continues

to limp along. each year c.b.o. lowers its forecast for growth over the next 10 years. 3% two years ago. 2 1/2% last year. and now 2.1% for the next 10 years predicted this year. one of the reasons for this, maybe the primary reason for this, is the uncertainty that comes from washington that we put upon our economy because of our failure to deal with large problems. problems that i think everybody in this room recognize. i don't think anybody in this room would argue that our spending, our debt is on an unsustainable pace. i think everybody in this room would agree that we need tax reform in some measure. regulatory reform. everybody understands and agrees, i think, that the

social security trust fund is on a path to insolvency. and the medicare trust fund. and the highway trust fund. but we seem unable to grapple with these large issues. this budget doesn't solve these issues, but it lays out our position on many of the major issues that faces us. it lifts some of the clouds of uncertainty. this budget lays out an objective for tax reform. it lays out a path to make medicare solvent. it does it in a way that our budget balances in 10 years. we relieve the increasing burden of debt from our children and grandchildren. the budget's not perfect. we are not going to agree on everything. but it's a huge step in the right direction. i yield. mr. price: i thank the gentleman. i'm pleased to yield to the gentleman from the great state of indiana, mr. stutzman.

mr. stutzman: thank you for your leadership and all the members on this committee who have worked really hard as we work towards putting a federal budget together again. there's no doubt that america's experiencing serious financial issues. the latest -- one of the latest polls show that the greatest concern of americans across the country is the government. and that just should not be the case. people should be able to be proud of their government's operations and how we work together to accomplish and address the challenges that we face. our national debt has soared past $18 trillion. our entitlement programs are unfunded liabilities. over 90 million people are not participating in the work force. it is our responsibility not only as members of congress, but specifically as members of this committee, to produce a budget that will return washington to a time of fiscal responsibility and that will

strengthen our country's economy. unfortunately, the president in his budget submission chose political short cuts over long-term solutions. instead of working towards meaningful reforms, he chose to grow the size of the federal government with more taxes and more spending. on top of that, his budget never balances. ever. the budget before us, however, is a bold plan to solve many of our fiscal problems that we face. for starters, it does balance within 10 years. it reforms our entitlement programs and saves our social safety nets for future generations. it also reforms our mandatory spending which currently makes up 2/3 of government spending. it provides the necessary resources to keep our military strong in a time when the world becomes more and more dangerous. it reforms our tax code, cuts regulation, and creates a certainty our economy desperately needs. the bottom line, this is a budget that our constituents

can find open. it's a balanced budget for a stronger america and i hope that we as a committee in a bipartisan way can pass this budget. thank you, mr. chairman. i yield back. mr. price: i thank the gentleman. pleased to yield to mr. sanford from south carolina. mr. sanford: i thank the chairman. i find it astounding that it took us about 200 years to go from zero to $5 trillion in national debt. and then over the eight years of the bush administration, we went from $5 to 10, it doubled. now the obama administration it will double again from 10 to 20. that is geometric growth in significance in the way that the deficit and the debts that are accumulated. i find it equally startling, you look about 2025 or so and our country, our civilization, will reach a crossroads where there will only be enough money for interest and entitlements and nothing else based on the current revenue stream unless we substantially raise taxes or draconian -- bring about

draconian cuts to government or go out and borrow a bunch more money. we are at a crossroads. mr. chairman, therefore, i just want to thank you for what you and other members of the committee have done in proposing this budget. to my colleague from maryland's point, it's not a perfect budget, but i think when it's compared against what the president proposed, where he's talking about $2 trillion in new debt and $8.5 trillion in new deficits, and structural deficits of $500 billion to $1.1 trillion in size, over the 10-year window, it really is a marketed improvement n that regard wholeheartedly support and look forward to working with you on amendments today. thank you again for what you

mr. buchanan: thank you, mr. chairman. appreciate the opportunity. also want to thank and look forward to working with the ranking member van hollen as well as all the members here on the committee. everybody has a different reason why they run for congress. for me personally i was concerned eight years ago about the debt and deficit. came in 2007. we were $8 trillion and change today we are at $18 trillion. you look at 49 out of 50 governors. they have to balance the budget. i look at florida after 2008, we had a lot less revenues. the next couple years, they made the tough choices that made common sense. today we are more prosperous than ever in terms of what's going on in florida. it's not when -- if you look back historically about democrats have been the problem or republicans. it's been both. over 50 years we balance the budget four or five times. i grew up in the city of detroit. it was a great city. we were the fourth largest city in the country. it went bankrupt. when you look at the cost of our debt today at $18 trillion, normally the cost of money is not 1%, it's 4% or 5%. 5% on soon-to-be $20 trillion, $1 trillion year. look at the overall, how many dollars we take in in terms of taxes and revenue, $3 trillion. it's a third. could be as high as a third of the overall debt. that's why i believe in a constitutional balanced budget amendment that we can work towards. i think this is a good start. it's not perfect. as some other members have mentioned. i think if we don't do it, at some point, i don't know when that is, it ends badly. that's why i want to do everything i can to move forward in terms of a balanced budget at some point in the future. thank you. i yield back. mr. price: i appreciate the gentleman's comments.

i'm pleased to yield to mr. womack. mr. womack: i thank the chairman and have great respect for our chairman and ranking member van hollen for your leadership on this particular committee. it's a great honor to serve here. this is arguably the most fundamental of our legislative duties. and i'm mindful of the fact that there are as many opinions on the priorities of federal spending in the united states of america as there are members seated around this dais. indeed, the total membership of the house. nonetheless, it is our duty to coalesce around a budget that meets the commands of the world's greatest nation. the end result of our work should at a minimum keep our nation safe. it should address the long-term drivers of the deficits and debt that have been mentioned so often in this discussion. and contribute to a climate that creates jobs and opportunities for all americans. it is my opinion that the two things most important for our country that this congress can do right now is to balance its budget and to bring regular order to its legislative process. we are about to air our differences in this markup. what is sad is we are going to be here for several hours doing what the average american does every night sitting around

their kitchen table in a matter of minutes. i am hopeful that we can do it in a constructive way so that those we represent are served by this effort. i yield back. mr. price: thank the gentleman. pleased to yield to the gentleman from virginia. mr. brat. mr. brat: thank you, mr. chairman. it's a pleasure to work under your chairmanship. thank you to all my committee members, both sides as well. i don't want to reiterate the basics, but i just take pride of the basic components of this budget as well. i was an economics professor for the past 18 years. i'm most proud of three fundamentals that this budget has embedded inside it. first it balances within 10 years. i taught college kids in an age bracket. we are going to be putting that debt, $18 trillion, on their generation.

so for me making so many inroads on paring back that deficit. i think we know interest rates will go up, not down. this is a true benefit for the college kids i taught for the past 18 years. i always told them to come up here. they are the one group that does not have a lobbyist and not represented up here. i take that part of our job especially seriously. secondly, the debt that $18 trillion, the entitlements should go down to the bottom of the debt clock, about $127 trillion. depending who you look at, a purple group estimates it in the ballpark of $200 trillion. so those entitlement programs will take up the entire federal budget by 2032 if we don't get our house in order. this budget starts to address those major, major issues. none of those programs will be in existence in 2032 if we don't start addressing them now. third, i did my ph.d. way back when on economic growth. that matters perhaps more than anything else.

if you have growth, a lot of other issues fade in significance. and this budget takes into account pro-growth incentives. so for all three of those reasons, i'm proud to be associated with the work this budget committee has done. with that i yield back. mr. price: i thank the gentleman. i'm pleased to yield to the gentleman from iowa. >> thank you, mr. chairman. also i'd like to thank you for your leadership on the budget committee. multicomments do not agree on most things, but they do agree on this, mr. chairman. when a country's debt exceeds the size of its economy, bad things happen. that is happening today. slow sluggish economic growth. that's what we inherit interested this administration and policies. mr. blum: this budget because of those policies contains an average annual g.d.p. growth of 2.3%.

versus the 40-year average of 3.3%. in spite of this, in spite of this, this budget actually balances, emphasize the word balances because the president's budget never balances. it balances in less than 10 years without increasing taxes. and i'd like to add this footnote. if the president and the administration would implement pro-growth economic policies this budget would balance in far less than 10 years. ronald reagan in 1980 said, no nation can tax and spend its way to prosperity. he was right in 1980 and he is right today. with that profile and thought, i yield my time back, mr. chair. mr. price: i thank the gentleman. pleased to yield to the gentleman from alabama, mr. palmer. mr. palmer: thank you, mr. chairman. first of all i'd like to commend you and mr. rokita for

your vision and integrity and leadership of this committee and commend the other misdemeanors of the committee for the work that they put in on this. mr. chairman, we are in a crisis. every year we spend more than we are and try to convince ourselves that deficits don't matter. in 2014, washington spent nearly $3.5 trillion while only collecting $3 trillion in revenues, resulting in a deficit that is literally 14 cents on the dollar. in other words, every dollar we spend, we borrowed 14 cents against our children's future. votes turned out in the last election, this past november they came to the ballot box because many of them lost their health insurance plans or premiums had skyrocketed because of obamacare. they voted because severe overregulation cost them their jobs because businesses cut back or closed. we are at a point now where the united states now ranks 12th among nations in terms of

business start-ups. we now have more businesses closing than are opening up. the american people voted because they have seen enough of the reckless status quo in washington and they demanded a change. a responsible budget would show them that this congress is listening. i appreciate the work that went into this budget. this budget authors a framework for how to begin decreasing the size and scope of government. some of the best provisions include adding work requirements to welfare reform programs, to welfare programs. eliminating the department of defense's unnecessary and ineffective renewable energy goals and lifting the ban on exporting the united states' wealth of crude oil. these are good ideas with real impact and we need more of them. we also need ideas that establish an environment in which business can star start up and thrive and create the economic growth we need and more jobs. but we cannot keep putting off

the real reforms that will help us get to a fiscally responsible budget. i look forward to working with this committee and other members on policies that will help us get our fiscal house in order. thank you, mr. chairman. i yield back the balance of my time. mr. price: i thank the gentleman. pleased to yield to the gentleman from michigan. >> thank you, mr. chairman. overspending by the federal government and a lack of fiscal discipline have expanded our nation's debt. in 2014, revenues to the federal government was 49% higher than it was in 2000. yet spending for the same year was 95% higher, nearly double what it was in 2000. spending on unsustainable government programs is a percentage of n.d.p. has increased dramatically and crowded out funding for national security and other programs. mr. moolenaar: more spent funding the entire federal government in 2004.

with $18 trillion in debt, and 320 million americans, an individual's share of the debt is $56,250, or $225,000 for a family of four. the budget we are proposing today keeps the promises we have made to our seniors and those near retirement age. it stabilizes and preserves social security by eliminating the double dipping between disability insurance and unemployment benefits. this budget also enhances our country's national security. the number of people including the chairman have mentioned, admiral mullen called the debt the single biggest threat to our national security. and as a senator, the president called the debt a hidden domestic enemy. this house republican budget addresses the debt in meaningful way and changes the trajectory of government spending. this budget balances within 10 years and doesn't raise taxes

on hardworking americans. this budget puts our country on a path toward a more stable and responsible fiscal future and will boost our slow growing economy, create jobs, raise wages, and build a more prosperous america. i yield back. mr. price: i thank the gentleman. pleased to yield to the gentleman, mr. westerman. mr. westerman: thank you, mr. chairman. i, too, voice my appreciation for your leadership on this committee, integrity, and genuine concern for a better future for our country. in 1969 a fellow arkansans said, today we are taking an historic chance to make welfare what it is meant to be a second chance, not a way of life. when president clinton signed the welfare reform act, he said it's far from perfect legislation, but will go a long way toward overcoming the flaws of the welfare system for the people who are trapped in it. during the ceremony, he also

quoted another iconic figure across the aisle, robert kennedy, who said, work is the meaning of what this country is all about. we need it as individuals. we need it -- we need it as a society and as a people. even president franklin roosevelt said in a 1935 address to congress, the sustained welfare program are a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. it is in violation of the traditions of america. work must be found for able-bodied but destitute works. this budget provides a blueprint for able-bodied working age adults while protecting services for the aged, blind, disabled, and children. we get what we incentivize and we are incentivizing able-bodied working aged adults

not to work. case in point, in my state, we accepted the free money from washington, d.c., for medicaid expansion under the a.c.a. the enrollment data results are back for the largest welfare expansion program in my state's history. please note this program provided 100% federal government funded health care not for the aged, blind, disabled, and children that were already and are still covered under traditional medicaid, but for able-bodied working age adults, of that population, 40% have zero earned income. four out of 10 have no job and no incentive to get one. this budget provides the framework to allow states to compel able-bodied working-aged adults to work if they receive federal benefits. it saves hundreds of billions of dollars and allows these programs to be solvent in the future and to function as those before us intended. president clinton said in 1996

that this is not the end of welfare reform, this is the beginning. we have to all assume responsibility. i encourage my friends across the aisle to assume responsibility with us and create a balanced budget for a stronger america. i yield back the balance of my time. mr. price: i thank the gentleman. i want to thank all of my colleagues on the majority side for their cogent remarks and for their really wise statements as it relates to the challenges that we face right now. it couldn't be more clear the difficulty that is we have. sometimes, though, our constituents say it best. i had a former colleague who called me and said, price, it's just math. that's all it is. it's just math. i said, hank, what do you mean? he said, we spend about $12,000 for every man, woman, and child in this country every year, we only take about $10,000 for every man, woman, and child in this country. just doesn't work. can't work in your home. can't work in your

business. so what we are putting forward here is a balanced budget for a stronger america. positive solutions. i want to underscore a couple comments that were made. few folks talked about the growth that's occurring right now. you talk about stagnant growth. this is the lowest, slowest, economic recovery ever in the history of the country out of an economic down turn. if people are honest with themselves, folks in this audience, people across this country, if you're honest with yourself you have to step back and say why? what's happening? why is it the slowest economic recover ever? why has the congressional budget office estimated growth over the next 10 years, four years ago at 3%, three years ago at 2.9%, two years ago at 2.7%, and now 2.3%. why is that that this congressional budget office says that growth is slowing down? if we are honest it's because of the policies that are coming

out of this town. so what we are trying to do is to say to our friends on the other side of the aisle, look, there are solutions, positive solutions that can meet these challenges. that's what our budget does. this balanced budget for a stronger america. my colleagues talked about the budget that gets to balance. it does get to balance. we'll hear a lot of talk today from our friends that it doesn't get to balance. when there's more revenue coming in to the federal government than going out that's called balance. that's what our budget does. it's important to appreciate that. it's also important to appreciate you began begin paying off the debt until you have a surplus. the debt continues to go up and the more it increases, the more we are paying interest on the debt. folks talked about the kinds of volume of money that we are going to require to be needed to just pay the interest at the end of this 10 years the congressional budget office estimates it will be $1 trillion a year. $1 trillion a year.

just interest on the debt. every one of those dollars is dollars that can't be used by the american people for productive kinds of activity. we ought to be ashamed of ourselves if that's all we can do in this town as it relates to budgeting. we balance the budget. balance the budget in less than 10 years. we do so without raising taxes. taxes are at this point when taxes are raised on the american people, it actually decreases their vitality. decreases their economic ability to improve their lives in this great country. we do so in a way that recognizes that the programs that exist out there for individuals, that there are challenges there as well. medicare, not according to yours truly but according to medicare experts is going broke. the president's plan apparently is to let it go broke. the budget doesn't address it. in fact, his programs, not just

budget, his programs take money, raid medicare. $716 billion to prop up another program, obamacare, that frankly s. not just a problem for our economy, it's a problem for our health. as a formerly practicing physician, can i say there are real challenges in that arena. what we do is save and strengthen and secure medicare and provide a program that would be a guarantee program for individuals, seniors, to have health coverage. have an array of options choices, choice that is my friends on the other side of the aisle will remember the congressional budget office says is appropriately designed actually saves money for seniors and saves money for the federal government. that's what we call a win-win. what we call a real solution. and it's guaranteed program for seniors and allows them the kind of choices they need to respond to the needs that they have in their own lives. we recognize that this is a

very dangerous world. very dangerous world. and what we believe is that the appropriate resources need to be put in place for our military to respond to the mission, to respond to the challenges that they have in way that protects our liberty and protects our freedom. the president's budget, what does he do? he makes up a number. makes up a number. throws it out there. says this is a good dream. i'd like to this have number. we would, too. the fact of the matter is he doesn't lay out a plan to reform the law, to change the law, to get to that number. that's what we do. we lay out a plan. a concrete, honest, sincere plan. transparent plan. that says this is what we need to do and this is how we are going to get there. the challenge we have in changing the law, because that's what's required s. that we need some help from the other side of the aisle. sadly, that's been lacking. and the president's been less

than helpful and comes to the table to solve the challenge we've got and make certain our military has the resources that it needs. we embrace the notion of federalism that is at the heart of our nation. not just because we think that states or governments that are closer to the people, and therefore most often make more responsive decisions for their people but because it provides greater choices and greater opportunity for individuals back home. what is right in georgia is not necessarily right in indiana maryland, new york. so providing greater flexibility, greater choices for local governments, state governments, that is how you solve these challenges. people know they can contact their state regulator more readily than they can contact their congressman.

when it is appropriate to have those decisions made -- i'm excited about the budget we are putting forward, this balance aged for a stronger america. we going to have a great discussion today. our friends on the other side are going to offer all sorts suggestions and amendments for this budget. i would urge folks to listen carefully, how many times taxes will be raised. oftentimes their priorities that frankly have not worked. they are the kinds of programs that have gotten us to the slow growth so we look forward to the date ahead, look forward to the conversation that we will have. i once again want to thank the members of the majority who over tirelessly along with their staffs to come up with this positive solution for the challenge that we face, a balanced budget for a stronger america.

i recognize the ranking member who will control the rest of the time. caller:thank you, mr. chairman. i cannot emphasize the fact enough that this budget does not balance. take it from republicans including the new senate leader on this than it budget committee who pointed out that using the affordable care act revenue to balance the budget is a gimmick. here is what he says. one of the problems that i have had with budgets that i've looked at his they use a lot of gimmicks. he assumes the obamacare will go away at all the money will stay be there. i would like to see is get to real accounting with the budget. also, when trillion dollars in business tax cuts that have been proposed by our colleagues on the floor of the house, some

last year, some this year, not accounted for in this budget. let's talk about mo cowan and defense spending. the president does have a plan. he got rid of the provision in the law that tabs defense spending. he did it the trade -- the transport -- transparent way. we know our republican colleagues could not decide what to do on defense spending, so they come up with a total scam around. senator mccain said "it is not legitimate budgeting." putting all the money in the oak when the joint chiefs of staff say they do not need that, we will have an interesting discussion today. we should not be using as a slush fund.

the voucher plan, the voucher plan is like the affordable care act for medicare. it is like obama care for medicare. we did not need that for medicare, we already have a plan. a lot of democrats said we wanted medicare for all. let's ask everybody to take responsibility for medicare. if they cannot afford it, we will give them a tax credit. that was a republican idea. president obama adopted it. it was a romney plan. president obama adopted it. republicans ran away from it, and now you want to impose that same theory on medicare. it is bizarre. let's talk about taxes.

yeah, we think there are lots of loopholes in the tax code. we do not think we should provide special tax codes for corporate jets. we don't think that hedge fund managers should get special tax breaks. yes, we think that we should close some of those loopholes and yes, we should dedicate some of those funds in a straightforward, transparent way. so i am looking forward to the debate today. i know my colleagues are. we believe we should have a budget that helps hard-working americans, not that raises their cost as this budget does. i want to turn the budget -- the debate over to congressman when more.

rep moore: much ado is made of the redistribution of wealth. this budget sets the table for the ways and means committee to cut the top tax rate to 25% thus shifting the tax burden to average americans who will pay at least $2000 apiece for this tax shift. it's tax credits not not to welfare recipients but too hard working, struggling parents to send their children to school. it's completely ignores the trillion dollar lunch at do that has been made of the debt -- but when trillion dollars a year is spent through the tax code with tax expenditures on offshore tax havens, tasks subsidies. 17% of the tax expenditures are

consumed by the top 1% there is much discussion about the national security interests. the greatest threat to our national security is not some foreign enemy somewhere it is because of income inequality. income inequality is greater than it has ever been we pretty much know what happened in 1929, we entered the great recession. in 2007, and we had the great collapse, we had the greatest inequality of any democracy in the world. we are ignoring our students. we are ignoring important infrastructure. we are at the precipice of collapse, all in the name of "balancing a budget." it is frightening that this

debate gets cast as a debate of welfare recipients and unworthy for people who need health care and food stamps -- the reality is that the 1% is who we are really protecting in this budget. i would yield the balance of my time today -- rep: this budget is -- going to make americans work harder for less. make it harder to afford home by keeping their paychecks stagnant. it will be harder to send children to use to college. it will be harder to have a secure retirement because you are privatizing medicare. it does all this just to provide new tax breaks to the super wealthy. just take a look at what we are doing in this budget.

we still allow the offshore tax havens, the inversions, take money and put it overseas. we still are encouraging billion-dollar ceo budgets. we are still favoring special interest with large talks breaks -- large tax breaks. we provide huge tax breaks for the wealthiest among us. i noticed those 50 words have been removed out of all the words are wrong tax policy. this will greenlight a top tax rate to 25% and it will be paid by the middle class. let me quickly go through the things that will happen to hard-working americans. it does so immediately and health care and child care. it rejects a minimum wage increase. it has cuts in education from k

to 12, two pre-k, two cuts to program -- to pell grants. it cuts it to the lowest level since 2002. it cuts john carter -- job training jobs. we still need to make sure everyone can come back. finally, it is going to cut the medicare guarantee that we have had with americans, and it will cut the affordable care act. 16 million people can lose their health care coverage because we need to provide new tax break for the wealthiest one or 2%. hard-working americans will work harder for less. i yield back my time. rep: can i reclaim my 21 seconds? mr. chairman, i would like to enter into that record remarks

by janet yellen. rep: i now yield 10 minutes to mislead. rep lee: let me thank our ranking member. judging by this budget, it seems that our republican colleagues have not realized that austerity is truly a failed policy. they once again put forth a slash and burn budget that dismantles the very investments that will grow our economy and keep it strong. they once again include devastating cuts that will push more children, seniors, and families into poverty. many of these investments began 50 years ago under president johnson's war on poverty. make no mistake, these austerity

budgets have real impacts. the cousin the sequester, 50,000 people not be enrolled in head start. 100,000 fewer households received rental housing vouchers. in males not to be distributed to seniors who live at home. the economic effects cannot be underestimated. take for example cuts to education, from early childhood to higher education to job training. it really is unconscionable that this budget keeps special interest tax breaks while claiming that there is not enough left to educate our young people support they can get good jobs. we know that people with a college degree have an unemployment rate of 7%, compared to 17% who do not. why would my colleagues suggest cutting funding by $151 billion

over 10 years? congress has already enacted and paid for, which will allow low income students access to a college education. we already know that there are major gaps skills, and opportunities. it has left high-tech companies with dismal numbers of women and people of color among their ranks. nevertheless, this budget would threaten our critical job training programs, ultimately leading to a lower skills and even lower paid workforce. at the same time, this budget cuts investments and scientific research in development. our nation cannot compete if we cut these vital programs. i want to yield to him three quarters of a minute to my colleague mr. moulton.

rep moulton: to discuss how the republican proposal fails to make the investments needed to strengthen our economy and ensure how america has an average. with the highway trust fund facing insolvency, now is the time to reinvest in our nation's infrastructure systems. does nothing to address the immediate need to fix our broken roads and transit systems. rather it sets congress up face another manufactured crisis on the road. we cannot run on a negative balance. improvements for fuel efficiency and reduce driving for drivers to take public transit -- the

president's proposal which would impose a one-time 14% tax on offshore earnings held by u.s. companies will add to enter $38 billion in transitional revenue. these headquarters use our roads and transit and ought to pay into the system that enables them to make their profits. research has shown that infrastructure make strong middle-class jobs -- for every $1 billion we invest we create between 10000 and 15,000 jobs. the republican budget also makes deep, undistributed cuts to nondiscretionary spending. through cuts to vocational school programs. technical and vocational schools are training the next generation to fill manufacturing and industrial jobs that will increase our professional edge.

currently, any of these schools cannot expand their classes due to financial constraints. additional cuts will only marginalize these institutions further. the republican budget fails to set our nation on the correct path. it does not affect our crumbling infrastructure. i think my colleague for the time and yield back. rep: i now yield five minutes to mr. mcdermott to talk about the medicare and other impacts of this budget. rep mcdermott: i am sorry to tell the chairman, this deal is in doma, dead on arrival.

i would like unanimous consent entered into the record. the new york times says "house budget disaster." the washington post editorialist says the house gop budget is a gimmick. politico says -- and then we come to the senate. senate gop blasts house plan for their way to boost the budget for defense. this budget is a compilation of every tired idea we have heard talk about, and we are not going to watch the republican party roll around in street trying to make sense of this. the republicans in the senate are going to go for it for one simple reason. it repeals aca and this will be the 56 or 57th time they have tried that.

the budget really is out of step with reality by repealing that because so many people, 16.4 million people are receiving health care benefits today that were not before the aca. the level of uninsured in this country is at its lowest point then it has been in many, many years. this all out assault on medicare , it has been going on since i came here with gingrich. he said, we want this thing to wither on the vine. the real trick here -- and i want folks not only on this committee, that if there is anyone watching this on television, they should run and get anyone who is 55 years and older to watch and listen what they are planning to do is set up an exchange.

they do not like exchanges in the affordable care act. they went to the supreme court over that whole issue. they do not think it is good enough for ordinary folks but for seniors, they are going to set up an exchange that they say will be carefully monitored for medicare plans. it is not good enough for the rest of the country but we will take medicare away from the seniors, give them a voucher and send them off to the exchange said they can choose from whatever plan. no one can look at that and think they care anything about the health care of this country. that is why this budget is dead on arrival. i would yield to ms. lujan grisham. ms. lujan grisham: i thank you to my friend for yielding. wages are stagnating, economic

activity is expected to slow over the next couple of years, and the u.s. has a significant problem with poverty. i agree with my republican colleagues on many of these points. you rightly mentioned that many of the people in this country are in fact still struggling. this budget only perpetuates these problems and does nothing to fix them. our economy has come a long way since 2008, but economic growth has not benefited everyone equally. even though the market is highest than it has ever been, the top 1% of earners has accumulated more wealth than the bottom 90% of the u.s. population, the largest wealth gap in history. even though the unemployment rate has fallen to five and a half percent, 2.7 million americans have been unemployed for at least 27 weeks and the unemployment rate for hispanics and african-americans is

stubbornly high. corporate profits are quickly growing. wages for the vast majority of american workers are stagnant and middle-class family have not seen their income grow before the recession -- since before the recession. in new mexico, one out of every five adults and one out of every three children live in poverty. my community is not unique. there are people in all of our districts who have been left behind, despite economic growth. what would happen if we asked our constituents, do you support eliminating the social programs that help you make ends meet? will we be able to assure that millions of americans on medicaid that their benefits will not be taken away? the answer to that question is no. we still have economic issues in our country.

i oppose this republican budget which devastates final safety net programs which support some of the most vulnerable people in the united states, seniors, the disabled, and those living in poverty. people need access to them when times are tough. removing that support system is the last thing we should do. i yield back. rep: thank you, mr. chairman. i will be offering an amendment later on the very topic you just mentioned. it is something that we have been talking about for a long time. if this was a play on broadway, we would be shutting down tomorrow -- or off-broadway.

80 we can make it through the night. this is real theater. we supplied the votes for them majority at homeland security. i do not want to hear pontification about the security of the nation. democrats surprised -- supplied the majority on that bill. this budget assumes 762 by -- million $762 billion in cuts. a level at which the republican majority that was forced to pull appropriations bills off the floor because they did not have the votes to pass them. does anyone think the appropriations committee can realistically do its work under this dramatically lower number? second, the budget relies on dynamic scoring, dynamic sleepwalking for $146 billion in revenue, including the margin to get over the finish line and

balance it in the ninth and 10th year. your records show that. any economist will show you how difficult it is to make dynamic revenue estimates. let the show you the chart that is at -- up there. this is what they predicted. this is dynamic predictability by the republican party in 2001 when they cut "our taxes." look at the results of that and how many jobs were lost over the next several years up until 2008 which was the final catastrophe. this is their record. this is what they want to produce against the week and have further crisis. you quite simply cannot have it both ways. when democrats passed the aca we financed it in a responsible manner. this budget essentially steals this funding from the poor and middle class by appealing the

law passed coverage and expansions. the budget assumes that the revenues will remain the same as the current despite the majority's demonstrated intent. i yield back, mr. chairman. the chairman: i now yield five minutes to ms. katzer to talk about some of that differences in approaches. ms. katzer: i look forward to the debate today. i want to do -- talk a little bit about the democratic budget. in contrast, the democrats will offer a more optimistic and realistic vision for america. it is a vision that strengthens economic growth so that everyone in america has an opportunity to be successful, not just the wealthy. democrats intend to build on the economic progress and america's

success stories of the past years. a noted economist said just last week -- and you would not know it for my republican colleagues last doom and gloom rhetoric this morning -- he said the u.s. is the strongest economy in the developing world right now. they have added 12 million jobs over the last six months extending the longest streak and record. unemployment has dropped from about 10% to 5.5% now or it gas prices are low. that has been a great help to families all across america. in fact, the energy information administration says that on average, every american household will save $710 in the coming year. our renewable energy, clean energy is going gang busters. america is experiencing an

energy revolution. health insurance my colleagues are correct, over 16 million americans now our newly covered. this has been the largest expansion over the last four decades. most people have employer-sponsored health insurance. their health insurance rates grew at one of the slowest rates in history, and health care price inflation is remarkably low. inflation is low, and capital is slowing again into the united states of america. the annual deficit has been cut by two thirds during the obama administration. the ceo report here, when they came and spoke, dr. elmendorf he said the deficit has fallen sharply at 6.2% of gdp.

the stock market has performed better than under any president. we now have a strong dollar. we import more than we export. this gives america stronger purchasing power. we cannot take the radical turn the republicans propose. we have to stay on track. democrats intend to offer amendments to bolster education, modern transportation infrastructure system. we want to keep the momentum going.