Points Out Hypocrisy of Republican Rules Package for 112th Congress
Washington, DC – On the first day of the 112th Congress, Dean of the United States House of Representatives, John D. Dingell, joined his Democratic colleagues and voted to support a rule to amend the Republican Rules Package for the 112th Congress. Dingell calls out Republicans for already breaking their bipartisanship pledge.
“I would like to see Republicans work with us in a bipartisan way to continue progress for the American people,” said Dingell. “However, they have made it clear that their only interest is in 2012 campaigns and defeating President Obama, not in taking real action for the American people. As the Dean of the House, this is disappointing.”
On their first day, Republicans are breaking their pledge to the American people and trying to put in place rules that are fiscally irresponsible, both procedurally and substantively.
The Republican rules package makes a number of changes to the budgetary process with budget gimmicks that:
• Permit the head of the budget committee to, in essence, rule by decree: it permits the Chair to simply determine what the budgetary impact of legislation will be without having to have concrete facts to back it up;
• Prevent any deliberations, votes or debate on proposal changes to the Budget Chair’s decree;
• And Sets up Members to vote for budgets that they have never seen.
This fiscally reckless rule:
• Allows Republicans to repeal the Health Care law without accounting for the impact on the deficit;
• Changes the pay-as-you-go rule to cut-as-you-go: new spending must now be offset by spending cuts instead of being offset with revenue increases;
• And lets Republicans increase the deficit by cutting taxes without offsetting revenue loss.
Dingell said, “We must amend the rules package so bills cannot add to the deficit beyond statutory-pay-as-you-go. We must close Republicans’ huge budget loopholes that are designed to provide tax breaks for special interests and companies that ship jobs overseas. Rest assured, I will NOT stand stand-by idly and let anyone, no matter which side of the aisle, dismantle all the progress we have made together. We all must remember that Republicans have a clear record – a clear record of doubling the national debt, and tripling foreign-owned debt held by countries like China. ”
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