'This Is A Fraud!': Chris Van Hollen Cites GOP Lawmakers In Brutal Condemnation Of Big, Beautiful Bill

Forbes Breaking News

During Senate floor debate on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) voiced his opposition and cited Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) and in his criticisms of Senate Republicans' version of the legislation.

Transcript

00:00Well, Mr. President, I thank my colleague and the ranking member of the Senate Budget

00:07Committee, Senator Merkley.

00:09I just want to start by reading a statement.

00:13This is a quote.

00:15Anyone that says current policy baseline is the right way to go is engaging in intellectual

00:23and economic fraud.

00:25It's intellectually lazy.

00:27My basic mission in life is just to try to create some honest math, unquote.

00:34That wasn't from Senator Van Hollen or anyone on this floor.

00:37This was from a Republican member of the House, Congressman Schweikert from Arizona, talking

00:45about exactly the issue we're debating here in the United States Senate.

00:51Let me read you another quote, a little more colorful.

00:56Again, about this Republican accounting fraud.

01:00Quote, this is fairy dust.

01:03And they're just full of crap.

01:05And I'm going to call them out on it.

01:08Republican Congressman Chip Roy of Texas.

01:11They're right.

01:13This is a fraud.

01:16This is a fraud that would make the Enron scammers blush.

01:22And I quote those House members for a reason, because we can disagree with what they did in

01:26their bill.

01:27And I strongly disagree with it.

01:30But at least they used honest math.

01:31And at least they used the math that is required by the rules here in the Senate.

01:40The honest math that Republicans here in the Senate want to dodge because it will both tell

01:46the American people just how big the deficits are, but also because it will screw up their

01:51whole entire plan.

01:54Just so people listening have some sense of how these Senate numbers are designed to disguise

02:02the real impact of their deficits.

02:05Look at, for example, the basic individual tax rates in the House bill.

02:10And they extended those tax rates from the Trump 2017 bill.

02:16It costs $2.2 trillion under what we call the current law baseline, which is the reality

02:24baseline because that's what it will cost when you understand that they sunset at the

02:30end of this year.

02:31And that's what it will cost to renew them.

02:35So under honest accounting, it's $2.2 trillion.

02:39Under the Senate fraudulent accounting, that $2.2 trillion deficit miraculously becomes an

02:46$83 billion deficit.

02:50Let's look at the House permanent extension of key deductions for businesses.

02:57That would cost honest accounting $821 billion.

03:01Under the Senate accounting scam, $6 billion.

03:06So what we're seeing here is this blatant deliberate effort to mislead the American people about

03:14the true costs of this bill, about the deficit impacts of this bill, about how it will impact

03:20the debt.

03:21And we all know that when the debt goes up and we have to put more of our costs on Uncle Sam's

03:27credit card, it puts upward pressure on interest rates.

03:32That means Americans will pay higher interest rates on their mortgages, on their car loans,

03:40and everything else.

03:42So when you try to hide the deficit impact, you really are trying to fool the American people,

03:49and we're here to blow the whistle.

03:52Now I just want to show our colleagues something that was put together by the Committee for

04:01a Responsible Budget.

04:05And if you look at the blue, you can see for each year, starting this year, 2025-2006, the

04:12blue is what Senate Republicans claim their bill will add to the deficit.

04:18The red is how much more it will actually add to the deficit.

04:25So at the end of this 10-year period, what you see is Senate Republicans are claiming that

04:31their bill will add $441 billion, which is still a big number.

04:35But the real number, the real number when you do honest accounting, when you add up all

04:42of these, it's $4.2 trillion, a much bigger number.

04:48Now I do want to point something out on this chart, I think everybody watching should understand

04:53it.

04:54If you look at these orange parts, these are the additional deficits from tax cuts.

05:01Starting here in year 2029, 2030, you'll see that they actually do start going down.

05:08Why is that?

05:10It's because the tax cut that President Trump promised for no tax on tips, they phase those

05:19out.

05:21This is all just a make-believe ruse.

05:24Yeah, we start providing no tax on tips, but those disappear.

05:30The tax breaks for wealthy people, they go on.

05:34And they go on not just for this 10-year period, but the reason they violate all the rules

05:40of reconciliation is because they keep going on after that.

05:46And as Senator Merkley said, if you look at the entire history of the Byrd rule, that's

05:51Senator Byrd, it was designed to make sure that 51 senators through a vote could not make

05:58these kind of permanent changes in any area, but specifically they were worried about areas

06:04that increase the national deficit and debt.

06:08So what Republican senators are doing is not only misleading the American people, but they're

06:14violating the entire structure that carved out this special procedure that we call reconciliation

06:21for the budget, which was intended to lower deficits and debts, not have them go on forever.

06:29As Senator Merkley has pointed out, I think if you look over a 30-year period, we're talking

06:33about $35 trillion plus additional to the debt.

06:41And Republicans want to hide that from the American people.

06:44That is budget fraud, pure and simple, and it is a violation of the rules of the United

06:51States Senate, this whole special structure that was created not to blow bigger holes in

06:56the debt and deficits, but to actually try to constrain them.

07:01So shame on everybody who's part of this fraud on the American people.

07:05I yield back my time.

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