ICYMI: Hensarling on CNBC, Squawk Box
House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) appeared this morning on CNBC Squawk Box to discuss the House Republicans Path to Prosperity budget and the House Republican Plan for America’s Job Creators. Below are highlights from the interview:
Hensarling on the president’s health care law:
“We were told we would save money; now the Congressional Budget Office has doubled their estimate to almost $2 trillion. We were told it would save jobs; now we know the Congressional Budget Office says it could cost us a million jobs. It imposes this new board, IPAB, to ration the quality of our senior’s health care. So putting all of that aside, what we really have here is a constitutional question that has to be litigated and, frankly, if Congress can force people in to commerce, essentially regulate inactivity, for all intents and purposes the Interstate Commerce Clause is meaningless, the Enumerated Powers Clause is meaningless.” “If private individuals and business used the same kind of accounting gimmicks that government uses, they would either go broke or go to jail. … You can’t add millions and millions of people to the government health care rolls and expect to save money.”
Hensarling on the president’s budget:
“Last night the president’s budget was brought to the floor and received zero – zero votes. Out of 435 members of Congress, not one single Democrat voted for the president’s budget, so I think that speaks very loudly.” “[T]he drivers of our debt crisis … even the president has admitted, are ‘Medicare, Medicaid, and healthcare. Nothing comes close.’ That’s a quote of the president. It reminds me, again, that I agree with 80 percent of what the president says, I just disagree with 80 percent of what he does. And he doesn’t deal with it in his budget.” “[T]he president is proposing the single largest tax increase in American history, $1.9 trillion. But what’s very interesting to know, if you give the president every single dollar of tax increase, 40 percent of which is going to fall on small businesses … it’s about 17 percent of the $11 trillion of additional debt he’s placing on us. My point is, you can’t tax your way out of this problem.”
Hensarling on the House Republican Path to Prosperity budget:
“We deal with [the real drivers of our debt] under Chairman Paul Ryan in our budget, with a system that we believe will secure and save Medicare for future generations; ensure that we don’t have the rationing of health care for our seniors with this Independent Payment Advisory Board – 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats to impose price controls on Medicare. We don’t do that. We use the power of competitive markets, a transparent marketplace, and a bipartisan plan supported by Senator Wyden, a Democrat.” “We have to deal with the drivers and send the signal to the credit markets that we’re going to get our act together. I said [to Treasury Secretary Geithner], ‘Mr. Secretary, the greater threat to the American economy is the American debt crisis and your administration isn’t doing anything about it.’”
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For additional information, contact:
House Republican Conference Press Office (conferencepress@mail.house.gov)
