Into office, we spent 6. 8. Then we havent reset to the 2019 baseline. How are we ever going to recover from this . Director young we put forth a proposal. A way to continue to invest in the American People. If we think we have adequate childcare and paid leave in this country, i welcome us to talk to hardworking americans. We can do that by asking the top 1 and 2 to add more into the system. That way we cannot only pay for our investments, but we can bring down the deficit we cant just talk about spending as if it only hits those programs that hit working families in this country. Senator johnson if you make the rich pay their fair share, the top 1 garner about 20 of the income pay about 40 of the income tax. Ts a fair share. Director young they pay about 25 . Senator johnson i remember when a couple hundred billion dollars was like real money. Political process would be all upset if you are rupbding a dollar deficit. Your plan to get us out of this, you are running deficits of 1. 8 1. 5, 1. 5. R, 1. 6. It never comes down. You are basically locking in at least 1. 5 trillion deficits for the next 10 years. Thats what you are budgeting. Clearly this is unsustainable. You dont worry about once again sparking massive inflation that further devalues the dollar, from a dollar its going to go down to 70 . 60 . Director young absolutely. That is why we put forth a plan that would bring deficits down by 3 trillion. We care about our fiscal path. This president has shown how you can still invest in the American People and achieve deficit reduction. By the way, he worked with republicans to sign a fiscal responsibility act that would save 1 trillion on our deficit. Senator johnson you are proud of a 10year budget that never , never brings it down below basically 1. 5 trillion . Director young of course im proud of a budget that reduce as deficit by over 3 trillion that continues investments in the American People. By the way, most economists will tell you the way to look at our affordability of debt is to look at debt and deficit as a percentage of g. D. P. As a percentage of g. D. P. Deverss below . Senator johnson i dont think average americans look at 1 5 trillion deficits as far as the eye can see and think this administration is bringing down the deficit. Thats fantasy talk. Chair whitehouse senator kaine followed by senator smash shall. Senator kaine budgets arent about numbers. They are about people. The u. S. Economy has come out of covid stroerpbg than any economy in the world. Large economy. Unemployment is down. Manufacturing jobs are up. Inflation is coming down. Peoples 401ks are up. The rate of people who have insurance in this country dramatically up. These are the measures that i look at when i look at a budget and an economy. And i dont see a competing economy in the world that has done what the u. S. Has done. And we have exceeded our own expectations from the c. B. O. Nd others as senator van hollen stated. A couple of comments on some virginia priorities that i want to dig into. Childcare with you. First i appreciate the president s budget has funding to save tan gear island in the Chesapeake Bay Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay. I asked for the record about the president s willingness to invest in fighting Sea Level Rise and prohe moatal coastal resilience and the president s budget includes funding on tpupbgd i received in the past to make sure we saved this island in the Chesapeake Bay thats lost about 70 of its landmass and vulnerable to climate change. I was not happy that the budget zeroed out a program i care a lot about, the lorna pwraoepb act funding for the Health Care Needs ofthe mental needs of our Health Care Providers. The budget is strong with respect to behavioral health. Thats great. There is a particular program that i worked on bipartisan that focuses upon the Mental Health need of Health Care Providers named after a virginia Emergency Room Physician who died suicide in april of 2020. Ill work with my colleagues to make sure we continue that funding. I know you are under some tight budget caps that affected some of the priorities th about. Let me ask you about one right now. The president sent us a supplemental that we have passed in the senate by a 73029 vote for National Security 7029 vote for National Security. One of the items was significant investment and initiative of president bidens i strongly support, aukus framework. Well Work Together with with australia and the u. K. To build out more deterrence and pillar one is construction of virginia class submarines and selling them to australia in the 2030s, equipping them with the capacity to build their subs into 2040. The president strongly supports it and he should. Its a great niche ive. But the prugt thatent up reduces funding for virginia class subsequent. We have been budgeting at two a year. The president has suggested in this budget that we would only build one a year to get to our commitment level where we can meet what we committed to with australia, we have to get to 2. 3 a year. View the two to one in this budget as an unfortunate backslide that is in a cognitive disnance with the president s request we fund the aukus initiative. Can you tell us about the challenging tradeoffs you had to make to put this budget together. Director young we felt it was important. When the president makes a deal he keeps a deal to stick by the fiscal responsibility act. I want you to know the president president , i, the Administration Fully believe in the Aukus Partnership with australia. We fund about the equivalent about 1. 3 submarines a year. We n go to 2. 3. Its not just funding the submarines. We have to invest in the submarine Industrial Base. One, i think i ask you to do is look at this in concert with the supplemental. We need that supplemental to move out of the house. Not just for ourartners. Ukraine and israel and humanitarian aciance. We dont talk about the submarine indopacific part enough. Is critical to not just building submarines, but building the base so we can actually when we ask to we can get to. Right now the Industrial Base is not sufficient and does not have enough capacity to do that. Move to keep our agreement intact with aukus. We look forward to working with you and others to make sure that aukus remains in place. That we get the submarine money. And the Industrial Base foyt produce more submarines. Senator kaine other colleaguesve praised the president s budget in the childcare area. I join that. So good for parents and kids. So good for childcare workers. Great for the economy. Come back in who are out of the economy now. Last question is, how challenging is it for you to be six months into a fiscal year and not have Appropriations Bills done . Director young the old staff director in me is on the back seat in trouble. I now regret the late bills i may have worked on and did not fully appreciate how difficult it is to implement prafpls, the efficiency. Think about last friday, big fire tkr uhoh. Did did fire drill. 4 00. We are like uhoh. K÷ing to pass this on time . Seeing if we have to put stuff on hold. It is no way to run the government. We share your frustration. We speaking of bipartisanship and things we have to Work Together on. One is on the process questions. Im one of those believers that process makes good output. Gives us a good product. And we have to do something and work on the process ofations process. My guess is its something ill think about and work on for the rest of my time working in this town. Incredibly important. An agency depends on this. Id like the annual process. I dont want to see the frustration with that process do away with that. I think its a good thing congress looks at now its 30 of programs every year. Unless we fix the processill bubble up and endanger you see the problems with it. The threat of a shutdown. Senator ka supporters on that point in the committee, including the chairman. I appreciate your service. Thank you. Chair whitehouse senator marshall is next. Theno is here our order is senators lujan, graham warner, whitehouse and merkley. Senator marshall thank you mr. Chairman. Today im here fighting for my grandchildrens future. For your grandchildrens future. Our grandchildrens future. They are going to have to live in a world where we are spending more money on interest than we do on medicare on the military. Because of oufr appetite, our of our appetite, for spending money when their children are going be less moneys for good schools hospitals, high speed internet, strong military. Because of the spending we are consequences of this interest. I want to quote something you said and you have written as well, directorng. The president s budget reduces the deficit by 3 trillion over the next 10 years. Thats deceitful. I think its disingenuous. You repeat it here multiple times. Decrease it from what to what . 19 to 16 trillion. Only in washington, d. C. , do you make the claim that increasing the cumulative deficit by 16 trillion is a decrease. At the end of the day you are adding 16 trillion that my grandchildren will be paying interest on. I think its disingenuous and the American Public gets that. My first question, director young, how much money is the federal government going to spend this year . Director young senator the et many slides have shown is about 7 trillion. Senator michelle current fiscal year 2024, we are going to spend about 7 trillion. And 7 trillion in the next fiscal year . Is that correct . Director young senator, we havent put out a budget for the next fiscal year if you are talking about baselines, if nothing changes calendar year 2024 outlays will be will 7 trillion. This budget year. About 7. 3 trillion. Senator marshall i would point out from over the last five years that Government Spending went up over 50 with no end in sight. Next i want to talk about budget deficits for a second. 2. 8 trillion. We can claim that all on covid if you want. Make sure its the same graph im looking at. We continue with these budget deficits of approaching 2 trillion and perhaps more. I dont think anyone can argue that thats the future. We look at our National Debt that we are going to add another 2 trillion to our nationalf the day, budgets be dammed damned. I want to turn and ask a couple questions about ukraine yesterday politico reported that the department of defense has sent 10 billion worth of weapons to ukraine that it does not have t replace. Is that reporting accurate . Director young senator, i think no one was officially quoted from the administration. I read the article. Aim not going to comment on unauthorized or people who speak on background. What i will say is if our ukraine supplemental senator marshall is the 10 billion funding accurate . Director young senator, if we have the ukraine funding senator marshall i wish you would just answer my questions. And not director young you ask asking me a question on unnamed sources. We are very disappointed senatomarshall we didnt just spend 113 billion. There is a big difference between what shes weapons cost versus the value of them today. So in reality this is not a question. In reality, we really sent them 121 billion. You said nothing to dispute that as being accurate. Want to go on. Here is a question for you. Does the administration have the ability to provide any additional aid to ukraine in the absence of congressional action . Yes or no . Director young senator, we have to do the supplemental. Senator marshall we dont have to do anything. Thats your opinion. Just answer my question. Does the administration have the ability to provide any additional aid of congressional action. Director young if we have additional replenishment funds senator marshall youe not going to answer my question. Director young im trying do. To. We have additional replenishment funds, if materials come in cheaper than we thought, that will give us the room to maybe do another drawdown package. We are looking at that. The department of defense goes and buys the equipment. If something comes in cheaper senator marshall will this administration provide ukraine any additional aid in any form supplemental . Director young senator, if we believe we can do that, to your first question, if we believe we can do that without affecting u. S. Readiness in a detrimental way, we will. It is the president s commitment we will not let putin march through ukraine senator marshall we have been told over and over by this administration we need to spend another 10 billion or 20 billion to retphrepbish. We didnt properly account for what we sent them. I still think we are 10 billion or 20 billion short. Director young we are worried about defense readi pass the supplemental. Chair whitehouse thank you. Senator merkley. Senator merkley are you familiar with the term grade nation . Greednation . Director young greednation . I think i know what it is. Senator merkley fortune magazine, i want to submit for the record an article title greedflation caused more than half of inflation surge as corporate profit remain at an all time high. For the record. Chair whitehouse without objection. Senator merkley corporations doing huge price increases on products and having all time high profits. Which is different explanation than we might have heard earlier in this hearing. My colleague from utah was talking about unrealized gains. We have in america a system of Dynasty Wealth protection. It works like this. If you have stocks and an hold them to death, they receive stepped up basis, which means they are never taxed for their increase in value as you pass it on to the next generation. If you have property its even better. You sell one property, you buy another. You use a 1031 exchange. U are never taxed on the gain. And at death it also receives stepped up basis. Essentially, the wealthy investing in property proceed to never be taxed ever on their income from growing value of assets is that not correct . Director young thats correct. This budget does something about t senator merkley this Dynasty Wealth protection has resulted in the United States having the worst distribution of wealth, most inequality of any of the developed countries. I just went through the chart. To give you a sense of this in america, top 1 own 40 of household wealth. Compared to canada at 20 . And japan at 10 . If you look at the top 10 in america, the top 10 own 80 of our household wealth. In canada its 50 . Japan its 40 . We have put laws in place that essentially create the very Dynasty Wealth the founders warned us against as creating a very Unequal Society is that not right . Director young senator, we share your concerns. Which is why this president speaks a lot about closing the wealth gap in this country. That is why we do something about in Kind Real Estate transactions. Thats why we do a 25 billionaire tax. Most americans have no idea to get around paying taxes. They go to work, get a paycheck, and get taxed. Senator me my father was a mechanic. He said, why is it that in america the laws mean that those who earn income by the sweat of their brow pay a higher tax than those who earn money through investments . In your budget you have for those with incomes over 100 million a provision to help provide some tax on unrealized income, is that not correct . Director young thats correct. Senator merkley hallelujah. This is t first i have seen a real proposal coming from an administration to try to help tackle this challenge. Our system is beneficial to the already wealthy, making them more and more wealthy while the burden is borne by ordinary blue collar americans like my parents who strived to save in says tell thats designed not to help the ordinary very, very wealthy. I appreciate that effort. And i wanted to note that under the Trump Administration you had in 2020, 55 of the Biggest Companies in america made 40 billion had incomes over 40 billion. Paid zero and federal income taxes. So these Companies Used a vast a our educational system because of the people they hire, vast amount of our highway system for transportation vast amountkpwrb basically every stage and paid zero in taxes. Your effort, the Biden Administration to have minimum corporate taxes says those who use all these assets that grow from our investmentse, need to pay some share towards it. Thats the right thing to do, isnt it . Director young it is. Buy the way, senator, we are already on the path thanks to you and others who voted for the inflation reduction act, we have for the first time a 15 minimum. This budget would take that 15 to 21 . Senator merkley thank you. Ouse thank you senator merkley. Director young im not used to you going last. Isenator whitehouse i wanted to let senator padilla go. My medicare and Social Security implement the medicare tax proposals in the biden budget and ensure that medicare can pay out 100 of medicare benefits indefinitely. How would the medicare packs proposals in the biden budget ensure this programsal van hollency in a fair and equitable manner . Director young i talked about this earlier. Thank you for your work on this proposal senator. It not only helps the medicare programs stay around indefinitely if we adopt. Prescription drug piece would ensure that seniors pay less and the government pay less. It helps with our deficit reduction. The president s medicare proposal would ask those at the top 1 , 2 to pay j 1. 2 more into medicare. It also closes loopholes that the wealthy have found not to pay medicare tax in this country. It would drugs from the amount that are in law now due to the i flakes reduction act to that saves cost to the American People. Frankly, these are commonsense things. We want to do something about medicare solvency indefinitely, these are commonsense ways to go about it. The president believes in them and this is our second time proposing these. Chair white house related on Social Security onr according to the actuary this medicare and Social Security fair share act would extend Social Security solvency indefinitely also. It would do so by making those earning above contribute the same share that regular workers are obliged to for the first levels of income. It lifts the cap essentially and kicks in above 400,000. Is that proposal in line with the principles that your budget is seeking to achieve . Director young absolutely. You heard the president speak about this very clearly thursday. No benefit cuts on his watch. Asking higher income earners to pay their fair share to make sure Social Security is solvent. Chair white house we had that wonderful moment in the previous state of the union when the president ans who wanted medicare and Social Security cuts. They all rose unanimous to say no no, we dont do unanimity movement about Social Security and medicare cuts. That was based in fact. We had members of this Committee Say that they want to take s ts and pull it up by the roots and get rid of it. Thats hardly benefit cuts. And just this week, former president said that, as part of his campaign he was looking at cuts to Social Security and medicare. Its really important that we get this done now while we have the ability to do this under president biden. Otherwise all the signs are that there will be cuts to Social Security and medicare. Lets look a little bit about health care savings. Enormous Health Care Issue in the budget. We have done a loft good work post the Affordable Care act to prove in real practice that you can save on Health Care Costs without Cutting Health care benefits. Things like value based care have shown that. Will you work with us to continue to develop proposals for savings in the federal health care spend that do not touch benefits . Director young absolutely. One, we have to bring down Health Care Costs and we have seen improvements since the Affordable Care act was pas we also know what the cost to the American People, to the Government Spending is ifnt do all we can to bring down the cost of health care. We know also it costs a lot for uninsured populations to exist. Im proud of the increased enrollment in the Affordable Care act. We pledge to work with you to make sure we continue to bring every tool at our disposal to bring down Health Care Costs. Chair white house we have seen in rhode island two of the best performing Accountable Care organizations in the country the cost of care per patient going down. The happiness and joy perl, going up. They love the Additional Services they get. That help bring the costs down. And of course, Health Care Outcomes impthats the path i intend to follow. Let me ask on one final point. Then ill turn to senator lujan. The Crime Victims Fund is largely sourced from criminal fines and penalties. As a former prosecutor im well aware how it enables state and local communities to provide Emergency Services to crime victims like shelter and transportation, very oven for victims domestic violence. And to support them seeking medical and care that victims so often face require in the aftermath of a crime. Director young, the president plan for appropriations to help support the fund over the next five years why are they so foreign for us to maintain the support for victims crime . Director young this budget would deposit 1. 35 billion. We have a proposal to resort Crime Victims Fund so funding for victims can be maintained in a sustainable, predictable manner over the next decade. And we would love to work with you on that proposal to make sure the c. B. F. Has the probust funding these victims rely on. Chair white lujan. Senator lujan thank you for being here today and your leadership. Director young the president s budget mentions the pending supplemental request to continue the Affordable Connectivity Program through december of 2024. The budget also promises, quote the administration will work with the congress to secure additional funding for this important need in 2025 and director young yes or no, if Congress Allows the Affordable Connectivity Program to lapse, would it cut connectivity for millions of lowincome families, eliminating access to work, education, and to health care . Director young yes, millions. Senator lujan i have been with senators thune and other lesion in the house and senate to move towards incorporating the a. C. P. Into universal service fund to its longterm stability and improve program effectiveness. Director young, will you commit to working with me to se additional funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program, not just in 2024, but 2025 and beyond . Director young absolutely, senator. Well wo hard you heard us talk about the ukraine supplemental. The president also asked for 6 billion for this very critical Broadband Connectivity program. We Hope Congress will act so dont lose access. Senator lujan the mental Behavior Health system in the United States has been pushed to the breaking point. I was visiting with a mfumeors Nations Capital with the league of cities. They heard from the president just yesterday. Over the past 25 years, new mexico has had the highest alcohol related and drug induced death rates in the nation. And the consequences of drug use continue to this is something that we have heard day in and day out from our mayors. Thats why im proud this budget makes investments not only in individual and families impacted by Substance Use but also across different communities especially highly add risk to overdoses. This includes pregnant and postpartum women and families. Individuals with Substance Abuse disorder like those who housing instability or seeking services for addiction to opioids, alcohol or even polley Substance Use disorder. Yt to Fund Evidence based and Public Health focused harm redeficit reduction, prevention, treatment for substance and polySubstance Use disorder for all americans . Director young there is a reason this is prioritized in the president s budget. Have seen american families, their story about Substance Use disorder. What it has done in the generational it can cause is critical. Just like any other health care disorder we have the resources needed. We have to make sure that Insurance Companies cover Mental Health and Substance Abuse disorder. Like any other element that might defall some in a physical befall someone in a physical nature. I have been hardened by the bipartisan heartened by the birtisan ithis. It will take both parties coming together. One more thing we havent talked a lot about today is also stopping the flow of some of these dangerous drugs that have come across our border. Part of the president s supplemental request that remains stuck is putting equipment into our ports of country to make sure we can stop fentanyl crossing our borders. Senator lujan i appreciate. Chair whitehouse procedural business. Kindly agreed or staff have agreed for him to gavel out the rest of the hearing. I have to get down to judiciary. We have an important hearing on the Voting Rights act. Let me conclude by thankin director young very much for her testimony here today. And for a budget we can all support and be proud of. With that, back to senator luj for his time. Then senator braun and senator lujan will close us out. Senator lujan i appreciate ladder. There are many compliments i have for chairman whitehouse one of his rie also is chairing a counter Narcotics Group of us as well. And the one area, young, i believe also needs more attention is looking at illicit financial markets. There is a lot of money moving around the country. I just dont hear a lot in that particular space. I look forward to working with your office. Of course with senator whitehouses team and others to make sure we can put a dent in there. I appreciate the president s continued support for the department of energy. And the department of Energy National labs. Im concerned that the modest additional investments president are not enough to solve our nations scientific challenges. For example, we must increase our nations energyecy while at the same time addressing the Global Climate crisis. I meet regularly with the scientists and leadership across d. O. E. s premiere laboratory system, including National Labs in new mexico, los alamos and our National Labs are eager to help the nation and world solve the Climate Crisis. The president and Congress Need to provide them the resources to get the job done. Director young, as you know on his first day in Office President biden committed to reaching net zero emission economy. As you know this commitment requires a massive reinvest nr d in our National Labs. Can i get a commitment from you today to work with me and my colleagues to increase our R D Investments to the level needed to tackle the Climate Crisis in director young you have my commment to doing that. Or budget contains 10. 7 billion nor labs. I understand more is needed. This is our last year of budget caps. Im committed to working with you. The president understands how vital the National Labs are to reaching net zero carbon. By 2050. You absolutely, we want to continue our partnership to make surehe labs are robustly under inned to meet the moment funded to meet the note. Senator lujan i want to close in saying thank you to you and to your team. Most recently the senate took a historic vote on the racialation exposure compensation act amendments. 69 senators voted in favor of addressing this important the statement of policy we received from the president of the United States had to be reviewed by your team. I want to say thank you. I know the families across america that will benefit from this program would also like to say thank you as well. With that i yield my time. Director young thank you. Recognize senator braun, thank you. Senator lujan is senator braun i recognize you. Senator braun thanks for getting recognized from the witness and sitting in senator. Looks like im the last senator standing. We have had a loft interesting discussions about health of our federal government and financial trajectory. I have a question for you. A lot of the facts and bigs figs have already been covered by other senators. You think a balanced Budget Amendment or statute would be helpful to keep both sides of the aisle in ave to do that simple thing so we dont borrow from our kids and grandkids . I know everybody has great ideas and intentions. Looks like the major result over the last probably since the Bush Administration when we put two rs on the credit card its been both sides of the aisle. That goes back to 2000. We are entering into three decades of it soon. Where are you at on a balanced Budget Amendment or statute . Director young senator, one. You are always thoughtful about these things. I thank you for the way you appr we have a lot of disagreements. I know you are honest about your ideas. My concern about that type of amendment is what it would do to like Social Security and medicare. I do believe it is going to take bipartisan solutions. I know senator romneyabout commission. Our concerns are always going to lie in what will dramatic cuts do to the benefits, programs. I think about my 9 ayearold 95yearold grandmother. If we did that. What happens . What is her source of income of stability if we pull back dramatically in that fashion on Social Security and medicare . That is my concern. Senator braun what about the crowding out effect. More and more interest year after year even to do that. Do you think well ever get to a point where i know in the president s budget thats all assuming that stuff gets done that was set in place back with some of the which you probably disagree with. Isnt there a point where i think its called the modern monetary theory. Where deficits and cumulative debt just dont make any difference anymore. Do you believe that . Director young senator, i need to make sure debt and deficits as a percentage of g. D. P. Make our debt unsus
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