Washington, DC – Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) today delivered opening remarks at the Committee on Ways and Means Hearing with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on the President’s 2012 Budget.  Below are excerpts, followed by the full remarks.

Failure of the Budget
“…[I]t would result in record high deficits while pushing the federal tax burden to over 20 percent of our economy, a level never sustained in our nation’s history…Let me be clear Mr. Secretary, Americans are not taxed too little.  What America has had under this Administration is too little job creation.  More borrowing, taxing and spending is certainly not the answer to what ails our economy.”

$1.9 Trillion in Tax Increases
“As I look through this budget proposal, I am left wondering if there wasn’t a printing error, because it looks almost identical to last year’s budget.  We again have massive tax increases – now totaling $1.9 trillion – that will hit small businesses, middle-class families, American employers with worldwide operations, and investment income – the very investments we need to jumpstart this economy.”

President’s Budget Does Not Address Important Issues
“Even the same things are missing from this budget – there are platitudes about tax reform but tax policy proposals that move in the opposite direction.  There is nothing on entitlement reform, and there is little more than lip service about getting the deficit under control.”

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Welcome Secretary Geithner, it is good to see you again and to have you here before the Committee.

It has been said that the power to tax is the power to destroy.  But last year’s election shows the American people are increasing concerned about the power of deficits – to destroy jobs, the sound dollar, and ultimately their children’s and our country’s future.  Unfortunately, the President’s budget features too much of both – it would result in record high deficits while pushing the federal tax burden to over 20 percent of our economy, a level never sustained in our nation’s history.

Let me be clear Mr. Secretary, Americans are not taxed too little.  What America has had under this Administration is too little job creation.  More borrowing, taxing and spending is certainly not the answer to what ails our economy.

In 2009, we were promised that spending $1 trillion on a stimulus plan would drive unemployment under 7 percent by now.  Instead, unemployment has now remained at or above 9 percent for a record 21 months.  Stimulus advocates also promised 137.5 million jobs by now; we are woefully short of that mark, too.
 
Today, almost 14 million Americans are looking for work but can’t find it.  And, a record number have given up trying, choosing instead to sit on the sidelines of our economy.  A full 6.2 million are long-term unemployed, and the average duration of unemployment is a record 37 weeks.  That’s almost double the record level before this recession.

Vice President Biden recently said that the unemployed should just “hang in there” and wait until jobs return.  But at the current pace, it could be 2020 or beyond before the U.S. returns to full employment.  That’s a long time to “hang in there.” 

The fact is Americans shouldn’t have to wait any longer for some real solutions.  Frankly, Mr. Secretary, this budget is a missed opportunity.  In the words of the Erskine Bowles, the Chairman of the President’s own deficit commission, this budget goes “nowhere near where [you] will have to go to resolve our fiscal nightmare.” 

As I look through this budget proposal, I am left wondering if there wasn’t a printing error, because it looks almost identical to last year’s budget.  We again have massive tax increases – now totaling $1.9 trillion – that will hit small businesses, middle-class families, American employers with worldwide operations, and investment income – the very investments we need to jumpstart this economy. 

Even the same things are missing from this budget – there are platitudes about tax reform but tax policy proposals that move in the opposite direction.  There is nothing on entitlement reform, and there is little more than lip service about getting the deficit under control.

During the Simpson-Bowles commission, which I was a member of, we heard testimony that once a nation’s debt reached 90 percent of its economy, that country would see economic growth decline by about 1 percent.  In the U.S., that would cost us about 1 million jobs.  Mr. Secretary, we aren’t at 90 percent, our debt is now 100 percent of GDP, and we can ill afford to lose out on needed job creation simply because Washington cannot get its spending under control.

Despite that and other warnings from the Simpson-Bowles commission and others, what is being presented today fails to deliver real change.  I had hoped for so much more and I am left wondering how many more experts need to ring the alarm bell before this Administration begins to hear it and act accordingly?

Now, I’m sure many of my friends on my left (literally and politically) can’t wait to chime in and “set the record straight.”  Well, allow me to admit something: we all share part of the blame for where we are today.  However, that’s not the issue; the issue is whether or not we will all be a part of the solution. 

Mr. Secretary, you and I have had many good discussions about where this country needs to go, but when it comes to legislating, this is where those discussions need to take place – in public and in the full view of the American people.  I am not interested in the boilerplate, but I am interested in finding real solutions that reduce the cost and complexity of our tax code, that deal with the unsustainable costs of our entitlement programs and that bring our debt back under control – all of which will unleash the private sector to create good-paying jobs.

Mr. Secretary, I look forward to hearing from you today and your colleagues from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Management and Budget tomorrow, on these topics.
 

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