[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 6 (Tuesday, January 10, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S183-S184]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, last night the Senate Democrats held the
floor late into the night to demonstrate our solidarity and commitment
to defending ACA, to defending the tens of millions of Americans who
have been afforded the opportunity to access care for the first time
and the tens of millions more whose coverage is fairer, more generous,
and more affordable because of the law.
More than 35 Members participated on the floor or on Facebook Live,
Snapchat, or Twitter. I thank each and every one of the Members on my
side--the vast majority of our caucus--for participating. Many of them
discussed the threat the Republican plan to make America sick again
poses to the health care of 300 million Americans. Beyond that, the
Republican budget resolution calls for a massive increase in the
Federal debt.
Yesterday Shaun Donovan, the Director of the Office of Management and
Budget, released a letter explaining that this budget resolution would
allow publicly held debt to increase by $9.5 trillion, from $14.2
trillion in 2016 to $23.7 trillion in 2026.
Our colleagues have talked about being deficit hawks. Democrats bring
up ideas. They say: Can't do it; it increases the deficit. Well, is
that going to apply to this, which increases the deficit by massive
amounts? The deficit would exceed $1.3 trillion in 2026. That is almost
as high as the $1.4 trillion at the depths of that recession and
financial crisis President Obama had to meet. Are my colleagues now
going to do a 180-degree reversal and say that now a debt increase of
such dramatic numbers is OK? I hope not. It wouldn't be right. It
wouldn't be fair. It wouldn't be consistent.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record
a copy of Director Donovan's letter.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Executive Office of the President, Office of Management
and Budget,
Washington, DC, January 9, 2017.
Hon. John A. Yarmuth,
Ranking Member, House Budget Committee, House of
Representatives, Washington, DC.
Hon. Richard E. Neal,
Ranking Member, House Ways and Means Committee, House of
Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Congressman Yarmuth and Congressman Neal: I am writing
in response to
[[Page S184]]
your letter requesting OMB's analysis of the Republican
budget resolution and its impact on the budget outlook.
On January 3, 2017, Republicans in the Senate Budget
Committee introduced an FY 2017 budget resolution. Based on
the numbers provided in the resolution, the Republican budget
includes virtually no deficit reduction and would allow debt
held by the public to increase by roughly $9.5 trillion, from
$14.2 trillion in 2016 to $23.7 trillion in 2026. After a
sustained period of historically fast deficit reduction under
the President's leadership, the Republican budget would allow
for a relatively steady increase in annual deficits, with the
annual on-budget deficit increasing to over $1 trillion by
2026.
Assuming that Republicans will not make cuts to off-budget
programs like Social Security, unified annual deficits will
be even larger: growing to over $1 trillion by 2022 and
reaching more than $1.3 trillion by 2026.
Comparisons of debt and deficit totals over time are best
viewed as a share of the economy. Based on the Congressional
Budget Office's most recent economic projections, it is clear
that the Republican budget would fail the key fiscal test of
stabilizing debt as a share of the economy.
REPUBLICAN BUDGET RESOLUTION AND CBO ESTIMATES OF THE PRESIDENT'S 2017 BUDGET
(On-Budget Deficits, Unified Budget Deficits, and Debt Held by the Public, Billions of Dollars)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
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On-Budget Deficits:
Resolution............................ -$583 -$542 -$674 -$729 -$785 -$897 -$893 -$863 -$946 -$1,009
PB17.................................. -447 -386 -500 -536 -566 -671 -665 -614 -669 -675
Unified Budget Deficits:
Resolutions........................... -571 -548 -710 -798 -891 -1,043 -1,080 -1,094 -1,226 -1,341
PB17.................................. -433 -383 -518 -585 -651 -791 -826 -813 -917 -972
Debt Held by the Public:
Resolution............................ 14,593 15,199 15,955 16,792 17,714 18,787 19,901 21,033 22,302 23,692
PB17.................................. 14,454 14,906 15,484 16,121 16,818 17,656 18,532 19,402 20,379 21,417
Difference.......................... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... 2,275
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Sources: http://www.budget.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/S.Con.Res.RepealResolution.pdf, pp. 5-6; https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/114th-congress-2015-
2016/reports/51383-APB.pdf, Table 2; Resolution unified deficits derived using off-budget deficits from https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/114th-
congress-2015-2016/reports/51384-marchbaseline.pdf, table 1
Compared to the President's Budget, which drives down
deficits as a share of the economy and maintains our fiscal
progress through smart savings from health care, immigration,
and tax reforms while making critical investments in economic
growth and opportunity, the Republican Budget would lead to
significantly larger deficits in each year and add more than
$2 trillion in debt over the next decade.
Notably, the budget resolution also contains exceptions to
existing Congressional budget rules that seem targeted
towards making it easier to pass legislation that would
further increase deficits.
Sincerely,
Shaun Donovan,
Director.
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, many of my Republican colleagues like to
claim they care about the deficit. During President Obama's
administration, there was an obsession over deficit and debt
reduction--and, by the way, no praise for the President for reducing
the deficit by a dramatic amount. Now many of those same Members who
chastised President Obama for much smaller deficits than proposed in
their budget are supporting this budget resolution.
I wish to say to my colleagues, you can't claim to be a fiscal hawk
and support a budget that piles on trillions in additional debt. That
is not being fiscally conservative; it is being fiscally hypocritical
in the extreme. So far, my friend Senator Paul of Kentucky has made
this point forcefully. My question is, Will other Republicans stand
with him and stand up against this fiscal hypocrisy?
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
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