Whip Hoyer Discusses the Republican Spending Bill on CNBC

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Whip Hoyer Discusses the Republican Spending Bill on CNBC

WASHINGTON, DC – Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) discussed the Republican Spending Bill on CNBC's "Squawkbox" this morning. See excerpts of the interview and a link to the video below.

Click here to watch the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2ZLCqwVAz0

"Frankly, we're going through an exercise right now where we are cutting vital programs which will build our country, educate our children and care for our families. We need to cut spending. We need to reduce the deficit. We need to bring spending down, but, frankly, the process going on now is not well thought out. There were no hearings on it, no exposure to the public's ability to come in and say the quality of these cuts that we're considering. So, I think that we need to focus, as we Democrats have been, focusing on educating our children. We cut pell grants in the Republicans' proposal. We need to invest in research and, frankly, an awful lot of the business community that watches this program understands investing as opposed to spending on nonproductive matters. We ought to cut the latter and invest in the former."
"We need to cut spending, restrain spending, but we also need to invest in the future. And slashing teachers, slashing aid to kids to go to college, slashing basic research that we can expand our economy, those are not the kind of spending cuts that Americans think are wise."
"But the irony is when Mr. Hensarling references where we are, we're there because of Republican policies that have been pursued. And frankly, the President has offered a budget which freezes discretionary spending for the next five years, brings the deficit down by $400 billion there but brings the deficit down by a trillion dollars. Frankly, Jeb, the rules that you provided for in the start of this session allows you to incur an additional $4.7 trillion in deficits over the next ten years."
"Clearly the private sector is the principal engine of economic growth in our country. But it's interesting to know Tom Donohue, the [President] of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, indicated that the budget that [Republicans are] proposing – slashing investment in infrastructure to expand our economy – is not what he supports and doesn't think his Chamber members supports. It's not simply those of us in the Congress, Democrats who are saying that investing in expanding our economy is an important thing to do."
"We need to work together. The problem confronting this country on our fiscal posture is a very serious one. The president indicated that. Jeb and I agree on that. We've got to come together and solve it and do it in a rational way. "



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