[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16134]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1030
                       AMERICA'S FINANCIAL FUTURE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, there is a great deal of hyperactive 
rhetoric about the fiscal cliff and the trouble ahead. The fact is that 
people should just take a deep breath and focus on where we are and 
where we need to go.
  First of all, it's not a fiscal cliff but a slope. There are many 
opportunities for us in the weeks ahead to be able to change the 
unsustainable trajectory of America's financial future. There are many 
efforts already evident and people taking steps to try to cope with it.
  The President campaigned very explicitly on raising the top tax 
rates. It was something that was embraced by Democrats running for the 
Senate and virtually all of them running for the House. The President 
won. The Senate actually increased in Democratic numbers. There were 
more Democrats added to the House. And more Americans voted for the 
President and his vision, for the Senate Democrats, and for Democrats 
in the House than my Republican friends on the other side of the aisle.
  It's encouraging that the President has decided that he's no longer 
going to negotiate with himself. He's laid out his positions and has 
encouraged a response. I, for one, was pleased that there was a 
proposal offered up by my Republican friends, signed not just by the 
Speaker but the entire Republican leadership. While it still does not 
have the specifics about what those elusive tax loopholes that they 
want to close are, which will raise sufficient revenue, I find this an 
encouraging sign that there is an effort, for the first time, to put 
something back, and I think there are opportunities for people to flesh 
out the details. There is an opportunity for tax reform; our system now 
is not efficient. It's chaotic. It's expensive. It's unfair and 
perplexing. There is an opportunity for us going forward to add a 
little more rationality to it while it raises more revenue.
  There are countless opportunities in the Department of Defense to 
save money, starting with $250 billion in the nuclear arsenal for 
weapons that we will never use and don't need. There are opportunities 
for agricultural reform. And it's been my pleasure to work on 
bipartisan reform efforts with Senator-elect Jeff Flake of Arizona and 
my friend from Wisconsin, Paul Ryan. And there are real opportunities 
in health care.
  Now I hope my Republican friends will stop the charade we went 
through this last 2 years repealing ObamaCare some 37 times. That train 
has left the station. The President was reelected. It's not going to be 
repealed. The Supreme Court has decided that it's constitutional. And 
most of the major health care players are busy at work implementing 
health care reform. But we have barely scratched the surface of the 
ability to squeeze more value out of the health care system.
  The United States does not have to spend nearly twice as much as all 
the other developed countries and actually have health care results 
that, on average, are worse than our European and Japanese friends.
  We have the best health care in the world for some Americans. But too 
many are denied regular health care, and others are paying too much for 
results that aren't good enough.
  We know what to do: embedded in the health care reform act are 
elements of reform that used to have bipartisan support, starting with 
the mandate that was cosponsored by 16 Republican Senators, elements of 
reform that were implemented by Republican and Democratic Governors 
alike, including Governor Romney. It's time for us to act on those 
elements, to accelerate the reform.
  I note with no small amount of irony that the $716 billion that the 
Republican ticket, Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan, used to campaign against 
the President, Paul Ryan's budget included the same reductions, and 
it's likely that they will be in his budget that's coming forward.
  Let's act on things that we agree. Let's rebuild and renew America 
and find ways to save money and put us on the path to fiscal 
responsibility that the American public needs and demands.

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