Paul Ryan

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Chairman, Federal spending rises each and every year by 3.4 percent under this budget instead of 5 percent. With that, I would like to yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler), a member of the Budget Committee.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield myself 1 minute. The gentleman is correct in saying that the savings that are in the Affordable Care Act for Medicare we apply back to Medicare. That's correct. We think that money should stay in Medicare to extend its solvency and not be raided from Medicare to spend on ObamaCare. He says we keep the savings but we don't keep any of the benefits. President Obama said that premiums would go down by $2,500 if we passed ObamaCare. They've gone up by $3,000, on average. I don't call that a benefit. The costs of the bill have gone from $938 billion to $1.88 trillion. It's a budget buster. It doesn't pay for itself. I don't think that's a benefit. Next year, young people are expected to see their premiums go up by 145 percent to 189 percent. I don't think that's a benefit either. So, yes, we don't want these benefits. We don't think turning Medicare over to a board of 15 unelected bureaucrats to cut it in ways that will surely lead to denied care for current seniors is a benefit. That's why I want to yield 2 minutes--well, that's not why, but I also want to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Stutzman), a former member of the Budget Committee.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield myself 1 minute. Mr. Chairman, another chart. The red line shows where spending is going. These are Congressional Budget Office numbers. The green line shows our historic revenues. The blue line shows the additional revenues that President Obama has called for. He has already gotten a big chunk of this--he just got $617 billion--but even if we got all the tax increases that President Obama and his allies in Congress are calling for, it wouldn't even pay for a fifth of all the deficit spending that's coming. This is where spending is going. We are spending ourselves into a debt crisis. We will never, ever balance the budget if we keep spending growing at the pace it's growing right now. We have to do something about this because, if we don't, our families will receive a bankrupt country; economic growth will slow; and our kids will be guaranteed a diminished future. We owe it to our countrymen, to our economy, to our kids to get this under control. With that, I would like to yield 3 minutes to a member of the Budget Committee, also a member of the Appropriations Committee, the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Nunnelee).

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. There are too many points to refute, so I won't bother trying. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin, a member of the Budget Committee, Mr. Ribble.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. That was very entertaining. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute. There are two ways to deal with Medicare essentially. And I think most people would agree, Medicare has a big problem. It's going bankrupt. And the gentleman from Maryland talked about demographics and health inflation. ObamaCare changed Medicare as we know it. ObamaCare puts a board of 15 unelected bureaucrats in charge of Medicare. These bureaucrats, by law, are given the assignment to require Medicare cuts each and every year to hit the targets that will lead to denied care for current seniors. We disagree with that. We think patients and their doctors should be in charge of their health care. We believe in choice and competition so that seniors have guaranteed coverage options to make sure that they can have a plan that best meets their needs. Now, is this some pie in the sky theory?

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute to say I simply dispute my friend from Wisconsin's interpretation. This is the chart the gentleman from Maryland was talking about. Guess where we got this chart from? The Congressional Budget Office. It's the most recent numbers they've given us. Will they give us new numbers this summer? Yes. And guess what? It's still going to show a whole bunch of red ink. We can't wish away this debt problem. One year of spending and $3 for every $2 that you're taking in, you've got a problem. We've got to deal with that. We know we're giving the next generation an inferior standard of living. If we keep down this path, we will have a crisis, yes. That's not fearmongering. The gentleman was talking about the fiscal commission. Erskine Bowles, President Clinton's chief of staff, says this debt is a cancer on society, that we will have a crisis. The problem is: there are Democrats who agree with the facts; it's not the Democrats who are writing these budgets, though. That's our problem. Mr. Chairman, we're going to have to come together sooner or later to deal with this. That's why I want to yield 4 minutes to the vice chair of the Budget Committee, a gentleman who's offered lots of wisdom on this committee, the doctor from Georgia (Mr. Price).

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 30 seconds to say that was pretty good scaremongering if I ever heard any. Like I said, the whole purpose of balancing the budget is to prevent a crisis from happening in the first place. What happened to Europe? They kicked the can down the road. They spent more than they could take in. They borrowed until they couldn't borrow at affordable rates, and then a crisis hit. We know that's where we're headed. Look, the federal budget is growing at about 5 percent a year, and the family budget is growing at about 2\1/2\ percent a year. We want to get the family budget on course with the federal budget or vice versa. With that, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Tennessee, a member of the Budget Committee and the Ways and Means Committee, Mrs. Black.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield the gentlewoman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute. The gentlelady from Pennsylvania said that we're ending Medicare as we know it. I've got news for you: ObamaCare ended Medicare as we know it. And what our budget does is it takes those statements from Medicare and makes sure it stays in Medicare, that it doesn't go fund another program. Stop the raid of Medicare, make sure that those savings, as the gentleman says, are necessary and worthwhile, and stay with Medicare to make it more solvent, to extend the life of the trust fund and not double-count it, to raid it to spend on ObamaCare. Loopholes. I enjoy this conversation, because what we keep hearing is: close loopholes for the purpose of deficit reduction. What it really means is: take more money and spend it in Washington. We're saying: close loopholes to lower tax rates for everybody. The problem with our Tax Code is it's not fair. If you have access, if you have good clout, you can get a loophole in the Code and pay lower taxes. If you're a family sitting home in Janesville, Wisconsin, you're paying whatever tax rate. We are saying the person or the business that has the same amount of income should pay the same kind of tax rate. With that, I'd like to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Williams), a member of the Budget Committee.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Chairman, I would just note for the record that funding on discretionary levels like that are set by the Appropriations Committee, not the Budget Committee, so those levels will be set later by the Appropriations Committee. I would like to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry).

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield 3 minutes to a distinguished member of the Budget Committee, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Rokita).

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Does that mean that money is not going to fund ObamaCare, and does that mean there's a $716 billion hole in the funding of ObamaCare?

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume to quickly respond. So here's what my friend is saying, and I have three problems with what my friend from Maryland said. I have a problem with what he said in the beginning, in the middle, and in the end of what he said about all of what is happening here. Here's his plan for economic growth: borrow more money and go and spend that money. Remember the stimulus? They're saying do it again. Then raise taxes. That's going to help the economy. Oh, and it's a balanced plan. Here's the problem: their balanced plan doesn't balance the budget. We actually asked the CBO--they're claiming they will balance the budget in 2040. The CBO doesn't verify that. They're having to make assumptions that the CBO won't even back up to claim that they can somehow balance the budget. But when I look at their deficits in their budget, yeah, they get the deficits going down in the first few years, and then it starts going back up. How on Earth do you tax $1.2 trillion, net increase spending, and claim you're balancing the budget? Look, we've been trying this economic program for a while. We tried the borrowing and the spending. That didn't work. We just hit the economy with a $1.6 trillion tax increase. The economy's not roaring right now. And what they're saying is let's do that all over again. We are saying, fix the Tax Code. Replace it with a pro-growth tax system that helps small businesses, that helps job creators, that helps families. Get government spending appetite under control. The government is supposed to be spending 5 percent a year, on average, over the next 10 years. That's too much. That's more than the family budget gets. We say bring it down to 3.4 percent a year. And so when you take a look at all of the smoke and mirrors, all of the claims, none of the Democratic budgets that are being brought to the floor here ever, ever balance the budget. How is that a balanced plan? Balancing the budget is what every family does. Balancing the budget is what every business does. Balancing the budget is what every local government does. Surely our Federal Government can do this. And one of the key ingredients to growing this economy, to making American businesses, big and small, competitive so that they can create jobs and give people more take-home pay, is to reform our tax system. With that, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Camp), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, who is in charge of reforming our tax system.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Chairman, I think the reference to Plato reveals a mindset that the country ought to be run by a handful of philosopher kings instead of the people. I yield myself 10 seconds to simply say this budget, this plundering, evil, cutting budget increases spending, on average, 3.4 percent a year instead of 5 percent a year. With that, I'd like to yield 3 minutes to the distinguished member of the Budget Committee, the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock).

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield the gentleman an extra minute.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Chairman, at this time, I would like to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton).

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Con. Res. 25, currently under consideration.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield myself an additional 1 minute. Let me show you a chart. By the way, a voucher is, you get a check and then you go buy something. No one's proposing that. It's a good poll-tested word. Premium support is a bipartisan solution, the only bipartisan idea offered on how to save Medicare. It's how the prescription drug law works today. When the prescription drug law was passed, it was expected to cost about $100 billion when we began, on an annual basis. What happened to the actual cost? It came down 41 percent below cost projections. Let me say that again. The prescription drug law came in 41 percent below cost projections. Name me a government program that comes in 41 percent below cost. Why did this one do that? I'll tell you why. Seniors got to choose the plan that meets their needs. The plans, the drug-providing plans, had to compete against each other for the seniors' business. They compete, so they lowered their prices, they improved their quality. Customer satisfaction is at an all-time high. And lo and behold, costs went down.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 30 seconds to say the gentleman from Maryland is right: yes, we do balance the budget. Guilty, and proud to be guilty of that. We think balancing the budget is important. More to the point, in the revenues we are saying we don't like this current Tax Code, so we can raise the same amount of revenue as the government with a better tax system, one that is pro-growth, one that creates jobs. That is precisely what the Ways and Means Committee is doing. That does not include the ObamaCare taxes, but it includes replacing the current revenue code that hurts jobs and hurts economic growth. With that, Mr. Chairman, I would like to yield 3 minutes to a senior member of the Budget Committee, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett).

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, at the beginning of this Congress, two additional requirements for the consideration of a concurrent resolution on the budget resolution were set forth in Section 3(e) of House Resolution 5 (113th Congress).

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I commend Congressman Price for introducing this bill, and I join my colleagues in supporting its passage, but I wish it hadn't come to this. President Obama has a legal and a moral obligation to offer solutions to our fiscal challenges. So far, that hasn't happened. In using the numbers from his last budget proposal, the Federal budget would not have achieved balance ever, and, just yesterday, he missed the statutory deadline to submit his budget for the fourth time in 5 years. Since this administration started, we've added nearly $6 trillion to our national debt. That's the largest increase in history. Look, we can't keep this up, Mr. Chairman. We have to budget responsibly so that we can keep our commitments and expand opportunity. All we are simply saying here is that we need to put our plans on the table. House Republicans have shown our solutions. The Senate hasn't passed a budget in 4 years. The President hasn't even submitted a budget yet even though it's past the deadline, and when he has submitted a budget, it has proposed that it never, ever, ever balances the budget. Isn't that what budgeting is--showing how you'll get your budget under control so that your expenditures and your revenues eventually, one day, meet? That, unfortunately, hasn't been happening. As a result, we have a debt crisis on our horizon. In this bill, we don't say what policies the President must propose; we realize that he'll have his own. All we're saying is that he needs to bring ideas to the table. Show us how you'll balance the budget and when you'll balance the budget. It says to simply bring a plan, and show us how you'll balance the budget so that we can have the kind of honest debate we need to have. The way things ought to be, the way the Framers intended things to be, was that the House passes its solution and that the Senate passes theirs, and in the budget process, the President offers his. When people put their solutions on the table, that's how you find common ground, that's how you get things done. But if it's a one-way conversation in which all you have is one side of the aisle putting solutions on the table and the other side of the aisle simply offering criticisms and no solutions to ever balance the budget, that gets you no progress. Unfortunately, that's precisely where we are today. That's why we're calling for this legislation. With that, Mr. Chairman, I would like to yield the remainder of my time and the ability to control such time to the distinguished vice chairman of the Budget Committee, the gentleman from Georgia, Dr. Price.