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Congressman Paul Tonko heard testimony today during the Budget Committee hearing entitled “Lifting the Crushing Burden of Debt” that addressed budget failures of the past so as to learn from them in the future.

In a series of questions directed toward Mr. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the former Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) from 2003-2005, Congressman Tonko highlighted the hypocrisy and false pretenses under which the current budget negotiations are being discussed. That is why he voted against the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010 in the 111^th Congress and is fighting against disproportionate and extreme spending in the Republican spending bills this session of Congress.

Photographs of the hearing are attached and excerpts of the discussion are below –  

TONKO: “This is a Washington Post article from January 27, 2004. CBO’s annual budget report had just come out under your direction showing that the Bush Administration had added more than $1 trillion to the deficit in just six months and that government debt could more than double if President Bush succeeded in making his tax cuts permanent. According to this article, you noted at that time that the massive deficits that would result from extending the Bush tax cuts – which were grossly skewed to favor the wealthy would – and I quote – ‘lower national savings, reduce economic productivity, and ultimately curtail economic growth.’ Is that accurate?”

HOLTZ-EAKIN: “That’s what I said, yes, absolutely. And I continue to worry about deficits, that’s the implication.”

TONKO: “This is a Washington Post article from one year later, on January 27, 2005. You were still at CBO, and due to the rising costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the tax cuts for the wealthy, and a prescription drug plan that wasn’t paid for, things were looking worse. You are quoted in this article saying – again, I quote – ‘We’re doing a little bit worse over the long term, and it’s largely due to policy’ changes. Can you tell me, is that quote accurate and which political party was in charge of the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate at that time?

HOLTZ-EAKIN: “I have no reason to believe it’s not accurate and Republicans controlled both Houses of Congress and the White House.”

TONKO: “No matter how many times we say it, the Koch brothers are not a small business, and I do not believe they need taxpayer dollars to fund their union-busting campaigns in Wisconsin. I don’t believe it any more than I believe that if we give oil companies bigger subsidies, they will someday become charitable institutions that won’t gouge my constituents at the pump and bring in record profits in the midst of a Middle East crisis. Tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of America were a bill of goods, sold to us on the premise that they would create jobs – but even before the financial meltdown, they failed – at a cost of trillions – trillions – of dollars. If we are going to spend that kind of money, America should be better for it. But while CEO pay doubles and triples through the decades, the purchasing power of the minimum wage has declined by nearly 10%. According to the CIA, the U.S. ranks 42^nd globally in income inequality, putting us in the same range as Uganda, Nicaragua, and Iran. We cannot compete economically with numbers like that. And we would do well to address that before it’s too late.”

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