Welcome, Secretary Lew. Congratulations again on your confirmation. I’ve very much enjoyed working with you in the past and have no doubt you will do an excellent job in your new role.
You are appearing today to discuss the Administration’s 2014 Budget, which follows those presented earlier by House Republicans, House Democrats and Senate Democrats.
Clearly, the Administration’s budget reflects an effort to open up a search for some common ground. Unfortunately, this has been rebuffed in the response of House Republican leadership.
The Administration made clear that any search for common ground requires a balanced approach - a combination of budget cuts and additional revenues.
The Republican approach is based on imbalance.
The tax cuts that Republicans propose in their Budget would leave a $5.7 trillion revenue gap. Yet they have never provided specifics on how they would fill it. What we know is that it would almost certainly require eliminating or dramatically cutting tax provisions that have proven vital to middle- and lower-income families, including the mortgage interest deduction and the exclusion for employer-provided health care.
Their budget reaffirms their plans to turn Medicare into a voucher program and repeal the benefit provisions - if not the revenues, which they gladly propose keeping - in ObamaCare.
In its budget, the Administration has also come forth with some further ideas on business tax reform, and in doing so, it has highlighted that while lower rates are important, they must not come at the expense of critical investments that American enterprises need to thrive and succeed. I hope that foundation and the theme of tax equity, among others, will guide us as we face the challenge of tax reform - tax reform that is based on reality, not rhetoric.
The imbalance in the response from House Republicans is further illustrated - even as we hear today the testimony of the Treasury Secretary - by their unwillingness to agree to appoint conferees to consider the budget bills passed by the House and Senate, in conjunction with the Administration’s budget.
This continued Republican embrace of a budget deadlock is all the more worrisome as the sequester continues to unfold and the debt ceiling once again approaches. Indeed, it was made all the more worrisome by the House Republican hearing yesterday that focused on the debt ceiling and the possibility of prioritizing our obligations, all emanating from Congressional actions.
We cannot continue on this dangerous path. Hopefully this hearing will serve a constructive opportunity to embrace a different one.
