Budget Committee: April 6, 2011 - Rep. Doggett: This is not a 'Path to 'Prosperity'-- it is a path to mediocrity, a path to insecurity

[Remarks as prepared for delivery]

This is not a path to prosperity; it is a path to mediocrity; it is a path to insecurity; it's the wrong path. We welcome a spirited debate about our economic future. Mr. Ryan fails to offer a balanced approach to achieve our shared objective of a balanced budget. You might say that in short, we Democrats say that this budget is just not our cup of tea.

Yes, this is a "choice of two futures" for our country, but the choice that this budget presents is really one between their ideology and reality, it's between a fact-based analysis and fiction-based mythology and ideology. The only thing that is real about this budget are the harsh cuts that will bring real insecurity to the many while providing a largesse for the wealthiest Americans who have been taking a bigger and bigger share of our national wealth.
In this budget, wherever you read the terms "modernize" or "reform," just understand that these are Republican euphemisms for a four letter word that hurts—"less"—less retirement security, less educational security, less health security, less economic security. This budget does not share the sacrifice, but it certainly does spread the pain.

We get less of what matters not because they tackle our soaring national debt in a courageous way, but because of how they choose to tackle that debt consistent with their ideology. This proposal, I believe, makes very wrong choices for our future.

There is, for example, a much better alternative than eliminating $4 billion from early education or student financial assistance that will only deny students the means to get all of the education for which they are willing to work to achieve their full God-given potential. Instead of cutting that $4 billion, I would cut the $4 billion that is being spent every year through the Tax Code to enable Wall Street financial enterprises to avoid taxes on profits from loans and financial activities overseas and which are, at the same time, encouraging the export of American jobs.

Instead of eliminating $500 million in cancer research and other scientific research that saves lives and creates jobs in America, I would eliminate the $500 million a year spent through the Tax Code, in what's called the look-through provision, which enables multinationals to shift income earned abroad among through their foreign subsidiaries.

Instead of eliminating $3 billion a year from our crumbling bridges and roads, I would eliminate the $3 billion loophole in the Tax Code that grants a corporate tax deduction on interest charges when you borrow money to build a factory overseas without having to pay taxes on the income you earned from that factory. We need to stop exporting American jobs, exporting American manufacturing, exporting American tax revenues, and start developing a more competitive workforce and rebuilding America. And we can choose to have the same effect on the deficit by choosing to close harmful loopholes instead of yielding to harmful Republican cuts.

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