Rep. Kelly Confronts HHS Sec. Sebelius About New Taxes at Ways & Means Hearing
WASHINGTON — U.S. Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) – a member of the House Ways and Means Committee – addressed Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at yesterday’s full committee hearing to discuss the aspects of President Obama’s HHS budget proposal for fiscal year 2015 that are within the Committee’s jurisdiction.
Highlights from hearing exchange:
Rep. Kelly: “I just want to get directly to the budget, because on page 33 of the budget, it highlights or alludes to a potential large tax increase that’s not defined. Now reading from page 33, this is what it says: ‘Even with reforms to Medicare and other entitlements and tough choices … we will need additional revenue to maintain our commitments to seniors.’ Now as I read this it looks like an open-ended discussion, but with no real specifics. What specifically are we going to do? Because we’re passed the rug-cutting time. Where do we go, where do we go to get this revenue? What taxes are going to have to come about?”
Sec. Sebelius: “…As you know, there have been discussions over the last several years. The president has proposed a number of tax loopholes being closed…”
Rep. Kelly: “We are playing ring around the rosy with this. There is no way that we can look at the metrics of this [budget] and say this is going work. … The real choice right here is between entitlement reform or going to some other type of a tax, which I think a lot of people on the right and left are going to have to have to have a European-style VAT tax. This is going to put a tremendous burden on the middle-income folks, the lower-middle-income folks, and the lower-income folks because it hits every one of them, hard. Nobody walks away from this. Forget all the subsides and everything else. I want to know, where are you going to get the money? Show me the money. If there is not going to be reform, show me the money. Where is the revenue going to come from? Because we know in this model, you tax it, you fine it – it’s through taxes fines, fees, or borrowing, or – God forbid – just printing our way out of it. So where’s the money going to come from?”
Sec. Sebelius: “…I think what we are eager to do is work with Congress on a comprehensive program which shares the burden, not taking out of the backs of seniors, of the backs of the poorest Americans…”
Rep. Kelly: “Madam Secretary, we agree. We agree violently on that. It comes down to the dollars and cents. You can’t wave a magic wand and make this money appear. You can’t do it. And if we are not going to have serious entitlement reform, where is it going to come from? It’s simple math. The president says it all the time: just do the arithmetic. It doesn’t float, it capsizes.”
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