{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release/bicameral-budget-conference-committee-opens-negotiations", "Bicameral Budget Conference Committee Opens Negotiations", "2013-10-30", "2013", "2013-10", "Democrat", "House", "RI", "Sheldon Whitehouse", "W000802", "www.whitehouse.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "10.30.13\n\t\t\t Bicameral Budget Conference Committee Opens Negotiations \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n        \n\t\t\t\t Sen. Whitehouse urges health care savings, closing tax loopholes to balance spending cuts\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\r\n Washington, DC \u2013 House and Senate negotiators today held the first formal meeting of the Fiscal Year 2014 Budget Conference Committee, tasked with merging the budget plans passed earlier this year by each chamber.\u00a0 In his opening remarks, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) urged his fellow conferees to support a responsible blueprint that will spur job creation and avoid further damage to the American economy from indiscriminate across-the-board spending cuts.  \u00a0  \u201cThe sequester was designed to be stupid and painful, and has filled the bill,\u201d said Whitehouse.\u00a0 \u201cIn poll after poll, Americans have been clear that the most urgent issue facing our nation is the weak economy and lack of jobs.\u00a0 Unfortunately, federal budget policy in recent years has been dragged toward the dangerous \u2018austerity\u2019 path, and largely ignored the role that infrastructure, research, and energy efficiency investments can play in supporting job growth.\u201d  \u00a0  Senator Whitehouse noted that the budget resolution passed by the Senate generates $975 billion over ten years from closing loopholes in the tax code, such as those that benefit corporations that ship American jobs overseas or allow billionaires to pay a lower income tax rate than many middle-income workers.\u00a0 Whitehouse also sought to harness the tremendous potential savings that can be achieved through health care delivery system reform without compromising health outcomes or reducing federal health care benefits.  \u00a0  The full text of the Senator Whitehouse\u2019s remarks, as prepared for delivery, is below.  ________________________________________________________________  \u00a0  Senator Sheldon Whitehouse  Opening Statement: Conference Committee  The Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for FY 2014  October 30, 2013  \u00a0  Chairman Ryan, Chairman Murray, thank you for your leadership in bringing together this Conference Committee.\u00a0 We\u2019re still recovering from the worst recession of our lifetimes; a harmful budget sequester is eroding our economy; and a debt limit once again looms.\u00a0 We have critical work to do.  \u00a0  In poll after poll, Americans have been clear that the most urgent issue facing our nation is the weak economy and lack of jobs.\u00a0 Unfortunately, federal budget policy in recent years has been dragged toward the dangerous \u201causterity\u201d path, and largely ignored the role that, for instance, infrastructure, research, and energy efficiency investments can play in supporting job growth.  \u00a0  Europe\u2019s failed austerity experiments inflicted significant economic harms while not delivering the promised budget improvements.\u00a0 At home, the dangers of austerity budgeting show in the sequester, which to its credit was designed to be stupid and painful, and has filled the bill.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0  \u00a0  In August, Senator Jack Reed and I convened a meeting in Rhode Island to discuss the effects of the sequester in Rhode Island.\u00a0 We heard about layoffs in the defense industry, civilian personnel forced to take unpaid leave, children unable to enroll in Head Start, and a cruel $40 a week cut to unemployment insurance, with unemployment in our state hovering around 9 percent.   \u00a0  We also heard about more lasting damage.\u00a0 Karen Markin, Director of Research Development at the University of Rhode Island said, \u201c[T]hese budget cuts are insidious, because we won\u2019t feel the consequences for a few years.\u00a0 And when we do, it will be subtle but devastating in the long run. It will be the absence of innovations in science, technology and medicine at the pace we have come to expect.\u00a0 It\u2019s like deferred maintenance\u2014it seems innocuous now, but it will come back to bite us several years from now. We can probably recover from a single year of treading water in scientific discovery, but if this keeps up, the nation\u2019s scientific research enterprise will begin to erode.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0  \u00a0  We must replace the sequester with policies that support job growth.\u00a0 Our efforts to date have been heavily in the form of spending cuts.\u00a0 Of the $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction since 2011, we\u2019ve cut spending on government programs by $1.5 trillion.\u00a0 That compares with only $600 billion in deficit-reducing revenue\u2014mostly from letting the Bush tax cuts on high-income earners expire this January.   \u00a0  And that compares to zero in another costly area of federal spending: spending through the tax code.\u00a0 I say to my fellow Conferees, you cannot say that the debt and deficit are (a) a mortal threat to our nation and (b) less important than every tax loophole. The Senate budget generates $975 billion from loophole-closing revenue\u2014and I\u2019d urge you to take an honest look at this untouched tax spending.   \u00a0  The tax loopholes I\u2019d like to devote to deficit reduction are ones we should close anyway.\u00a0 Big Oil does not need taxpayer subsidies.\u00a0 Companies should not be rewarded for shifting assets to foreign countries.\u00a0 Billionaires should not pay lower tax rates than brickmasons.\u00a0 Correcting these would be fair, and can help us create jobs and grow the economy.  \u00a0  I\u2019ll close on health care.\u00a0 The potential savings from health care delivery system reform are tremendous.\u00a0 Experts from the President\u2019s Council of Economic Advisors, to the Lewin Group and former Bush Treasury Secretary O\u2019Neil, to the Institute of Medicine estimate $700 billion to $1 trillion in nationwide health care savings every year without compromising health outcomes \u2013 all by addressing things like medical errors and our backwards payment structure.\u00a0 Since over 40 percent of total health spending is federal, that means huge potential federal savings.  \u00a0  In fact, according to CBO, it already has.\u00a0 Since 2010 when the Bowles-Simpson commission recommended we cut our deficits by $4 trillion, we\u2019ve seen CBO\u2019s estimates for Medicare and Medicaid drop by $1.2 trillion\u2014substantial savings that have not been included in the official deficit reduction tallies.\u00a0 I look forward to working with Conferees on both sides to support policies to deliver the savings and better health care Americans deserve.   \u00a0\r\n  \u00a0###\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t  \n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n\t\n    \n    \n    \n    \t\n    \t\n\t    \t  \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tNext Article\n\t\t    \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tPrevious Article", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release/bicameral-budget-conference-committee-opens-negotiations"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8682720363140106, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}