Paul Ryan

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. I enjoyed listening to the talking points from my friend. I just don't think they apply to this bill. Russian roulette. This is the second piece of legislation we've brought to the floor to responsibly raise the debt limit while cutting spending. Manufactured crisis. Who went on television to scare senior citizens that their Social Security checks might be in doubt? The President of the United States. Mr. Speaker, the cuts in this bill were agreed to in a bipartisan group. The level of cuts in this bill that go into effect immediately are $2 billion off the Senate majority leader's cuts in his bill. These were agreed to on a bipartisan basis. We're cutting spending not as much as we want, but at least we're cutting spending. Russian roulette is raising the debt limit without getting borrowing under control. A manufactured crisis is trying to scare seniors and the country into giving this government another blank check to keep spending money we don't have. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Hampshire, a member of the Budget Committee, Mr. Guinta.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes. The gentleman, my friend over from Maryland, keeps talking about the Reid plan, the Senate majority leader over in the Senate. His plan. I've got the CBO score, too. It says it's a $2.7 trillion increase. That means it doesn't raise the debt limit less than we cut spending, so it cuts less. But more importantly, $1.3 trillion of that money is accounting tricks and budget gimmicks. Mr. Speaker, the American people are tired of all of the accounting tricks and the budget gimmicks that go on in Washington. Let me explain what $1.3 trillion of this does. It says that imagine that we're at war for 10 years in Afghanistan and Iraq at surge levels. We assume we're going to be fighting this war for 10 more years with over 100,000 troops in Afghanistan and, oh gosh, wait. We're going to withdraw our troops in 2014. Trillion dollars in savings. I've got a better idea. Let's pass a bill to cover the Moon with yogurt that will cost $5 trillion today. And then let's pass a bill the next day to cancel that bill. We could save $5 trillion. Wait. I got a better idea. Our debt is $14 trillion. Let's come up with a new plan to spend $14 trillion, then rescind it the next day and let's save $14 trillion. This stuff is fiscal fantasy. You can't make this stuff up, Mr. Speaker. Suggesting that we're going to be in a war at these levels for 10 more years when everybody knows we've already decided not to do that, that does not get us $1.3 trillion in spending cuts. Only in Washington can you add up math like that. We need real spending cuts.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Wyoming (Mrs. Lummis).

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I will not. Here is the deal, Mr. Speaker. When we tax our businesses at higher rates than our foreign competitors tax theirs, they win; we lose. Some companies utilize loopholes and pay no taxes. Others pay the second- highest tax rate in the industrialized world. Yielding myself 15 more seconds, I would simply say, Mr. Speaker, that the goal here is to get rid of all these loopholes so whoever you are, no matter what you make, you pay the same amount of tax rates. We need to reform this Tax Code so we create jobs. If we simply raise taxes, raise spending, borrow more money, we lose jobs. This debt is a threat to our current economy, and the Tax Code is a current threat to our economy. With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from New York (Ms. Buerkle).

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Platts).

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, here's our problem. We have a crushing burden of debt that is coming to hit our economy. This is what it all comes down to. We are driving our country and our economy off of a cliff. The reason is because we are spending so much more money than we have. We can't keep spending money we don't have. Forty-two cents out of every dollar coming out of Washington--it's borrowed money. Let's take a look at where it's coming from. We're borrowing it, 47 percent of it, from other countries--China number one. Mr. Speaker, you can't have sovereignty, self-determination as a country, if we are relying on other governments to cash-flow half of our deficit. This is where we are. Here is the problem we have right now, Mr. Speaker. We have a leadership deficit. I keep hearing about the President has got a plan; the President is offering balance. The President hasn't offered a thing yet--nothing on paper, nothing in public. Leaning on reporters at press conferences is not leadership. Giving speeches, according to the CBO, is not budgeting. The President did inherit a tough problem--no two ways about it. What did he do with this problem? He drove us deeper into debt: $1 trillion of borrowed money for stimulus that was promised to keep unemployment below 8 percent, that went up to 10, and now it's at 9.2; a stalled economy; a budget the President gave us that doubles the debt in 5 years and triples it in 10 years. That's not leadership. What has the other body done in the Senate, our partners on the other side of the aisle? Mr. Speaker, it has been 811 days since they bothered trying to pass a budget. Congress has gone for 2 years without a budget. What did we do when we assumed the majority? We passed a budget. We wrote a budget. We did it in daylight, not in the backroom. We drafted it. We brought it through the committee. We had amendments. We brought it to the floor. We debated it and we passed it. That is what we've done. When you take a look at our problem, Mr. Speaker, you have to address what is driving our debt. Here are just the cold, hard facts: 10,000 people are retiring every day. The baby boomers are here, and we're not ready for them. Far fewer people are following them into the workforce. Health care costs are going up four times the rate of inflation. The Congressional Budget Office is telling us Medicare goes bankrupt in 9 years. Medicaid is already bankrupting our States. These are the drivers of our debt. By the year 2025, three programs--Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare--plus our interest, consume 100 percent of all Federal revenues. By the end of this decade, 20 percent of our revenues goes to just paying interest. This is unsustainable. So what does our budget do? What does the document that we passed that shows leadership on this issue do? It saves these programs. For Medicare, we say you're already retired if you're retired. If you're about to retire, we don't want to pull the rug out from under you. You organized your life around these programs, so let's keep it as is; but in order to cash-flow that commitment, in order to make good on that promissory note, you have to reform it for the next generation. Let's do it in a way that looks like the commission that President Clinton offered, a system that resembles the one we have as Members of Congress: where we get to choose the plans that meet our needs, where we don't subsidize wealthy people as much, and where we subsidize low- income and sick people a whole lot more. That's what a ``safety net'' is. We fix it and we save Medicare. What does the law do that the President does? It raids a half a trillion dollars from Medicare. It puts a new board in charge of price controlling and rationing care to current seniors, and it does nothing to save it from bankruptcy. These are the issues that have got to be dealt with. Mr. Speaker, we keep hearing about balance. We keep hearing about the need to raise taxes as we cut spending $3 for $1 or something to that effect. The red line shows Congressional Budget Office projections on spending. The green lines are taxes. Basically, what this says is there is no way you can tax your way out of this problem. We asked the Congressional Budget Office. If we tried to do that--have balance, raise taxes--the tax rates on the next generation would be this: The lowest income tax bracket that lower income people pay, which is 10 percent now, goes to 25 percent. Middle-income taxpayers would pay a 66 percent rate. The top tax rate, which is what all those successful small businesses that create most of our jobs pay, would go to 88 percent. That's according to the Congressional Budget Office. That's the path we're on right now. This is unsustainable. What is needed is leadership, and the reason we're talking about this debt limit increase is that we've seen none--none from the President, none from the other body. So, if we're not going to have a budget process, how on Earth are we going to get spending under control so we can solve this problem? Our budget, this cap and this cut, gets the debt paid off. It puts us on a path to prosperity. It closes loopholes to lower tax rates to grow jobs. It says that the genius of America is the individual, is the business, not our government. It maintains the American legacy of leaving the next generation better off, and we know, without a shadow of a doubt, we are leaving the next generation worse off. In the good old days of 2007, we used to say that this debt was a threat to our children and our grandchildren. Not so anymore. It is a threat to our economy today. Pass Cut, Cap, and Balance. Save this country. Grow the economy. Save the Nation for our children and our grandchildren.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Hurt).

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds only to say that the only place where our budget mentions oil is when we say we want to drill for more of it in our country. We don't address the tax issue. In fact, what we call for is eliminating loopholes to lower tax rates. We save Medicare, and guarantee the program is there for people 55 and above--more importantly, contrary to the current law, which takes Medicare away from current seniors as they now know it. With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the House Republican Conference chairman, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling).

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Bishop).

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Chaffetz), a member of the Budget Committee, control 30 minutes; the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett), the vice chair of the Budget Committee, control 30 minutes; and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan) control 30 minutes of debate.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. With respect to the remaining time, I will reserve the balance of my time and turn it over to the gentleman from Utah.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Walberg).

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds to say, I hope the gentleman joins us in supporting our plan, then, because our plan says let's get rid of all those tax loopholes. Let's make the tax code flatter and fairer. Let's get tax rates down for all Americans and for businesses so we can grow our economy.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Schweikert).

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. May I inquire as to the division of time between the two.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. At this time I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, Mr. Bachus.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California, the chairman of the Government Reform Committee, Mr. Issa. (Mr. ISSA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield myself 30 seconds to simply say, I think the gentleman threw Social Security in there for good measure in the budget. That is assumed. Underneath these caps, it doesn't address Social Security. It probably should. But, more to the point, Mr. Speaker, guess what ends Medicare as we know it? The current law, the President's health care law. It raids $500 billion out of Medicare to spend on another program, and then puts a board of 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats in charge of price controlling and, therefore, rationing Medicare for current seniors. Medicaid's going bankrupt. If you want these programs to succeed, you have to reform these programs. Leaders see the problem and fix the problem. That's what we propose to do. With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Nunnelee).

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, at this time I would like to yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert).

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute, if we're going into recalling history, just to simply say that the ``corporate tax loophole'' is a provision that was in the President's stimulus bill drafted by Democrats, passed by Democrats, not supported by Republicans. The ``oil tax subsidies'' were the result of a bipartisan legislation responding to a WTO suit which said that all American producers, manufacturers, domestic producers get lower tax rates if they produce something in America. What the other side is simply saying is, no, let's just raise that tax on just oil and gas, not on any other manufacturer, and that is a subsidy for oil and gas. Mr. Speaker, these provisions are so infinitesimally small, they're just fundamentally un-serious. They're just an attempt to score political points to try and dodge coming up with solutions to solve the problem. We have a debt problem we have to deal with; we have a deficit problem we have to deal with. If we don't deal with it, we're going to lose more jobs. With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Paulsen).

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 355, I call up the bill (H.R. 2560) to cut, cap, and balance the Federal budget, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I rise in opposition to the motion.

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I have fantastic news. All of the gentleman from Georgia's concerns have already been addressed in this legislation. Let me simply refer you to section 317 where it says: ``Exempt from direct spending limits, section (b)(3), veterans benefits and services, which is all of function 700.'' Let me refer you to section 318 that shows when it comes to sequester, which is basically an enforcement mechanism on spending caps, exemption, veterans benefits. Veterans benefits are explicitly preserved in this legislation just as they are with the budget that we had passed that this cap and cut conformed to. So make no mistake, Mr. Speaker, there are no cuts to veterans in here, because we agree the men and women out there fighting on the front lines for our freedom have been given promises to benefits like health care and others, and those promises all are to be kept. That is why we've already taken care of the gentleman's concerns so the recommit is unnecessary because we preserve the benefits explicitly. I yield back the balance of my time.