Democrats release budget, respond to GOP criticism

>>> the one thing we've seen is $1 trillion in higher taxes, taxing more, borrowing more and spending more is not a path to prosperity.

>> that was congressman paul ryan on the hill. pleased that democrats are bringing bunts budgets to the table. maryland congressman chris van holland is the ranking member on the house budget committee . he joins me now, congressman van holland . good afternoon to you.

>> good afternoon to you, luke .

>> i want to get your take on house republicans are panning the democratic budgets that will be voted on tomorrow. your budget , the black caucus budget , the progressive budget , various ones have no chance of becoming law. is there any worry that the idea that republicans are putting forward that our budget balances, our budget balances, a very good sound bite that can work in mid-term elections. whereas you guys' isn't balanced until about 2040 . is there any worry that the message could take hold and cause problems for you in the 2014 mid-terms?

>> no, luke , for this reason -- the republican budget , the ryan budget balances on the backs of middle income taxpayers. it balances by violating our commitment to our seniors, through the voucher plan. by gutting important investments. in infrastructure, in science and research, in education. things that are important to power the economy. our focus has been on jobs first. let's get the economy in full gear. not put the brakes on it. which is what the republicans do. they've gotten austerity budget that according to the nonpartisan congressional budget office , will result in 750,000 fewer jobs bn i end of the year. so we say let's tackle the deficit in a smart way, get people back to work and reduce it over a steady period over a period of time and our comes to balance at the same time that the republicans' budget from last year comes into balance.

>> on the issue of revenue, i believe your budget has about $200 billion more in revenue than senator murray's budget in the senate. why did you put that in there considering that republicans are so adverse to any new revenue?

>> the budget we have in our democratic proposal. if you take it even together with the revenue from the fiscal cliff agreement, is still less total revenue, luke , than was embedded in the bipartisan simpson-bowles agreement. so we have less revenue proposed by that bipartisan group. we couple it with targeted cuts and reforms over a period of time. and if you actually look at the totality of the budget changes we made over the last couple of years, including the $1.5 trillion, we have a higher ratio of cuts to revenue. considering all the revenue than sim spso simpson-bowles did. a bipartisan yardstick. so we're right there in a balanced approach for deficit reduction. where the republicans, it was the same thing that romney ryan were proposing before. talk about lessons learned . they may have learned some lessons on immigration reform . they're totally stuck in their own mud when it comes to the budget .

>> on the sequester, it seems that for all intents and purposes that will continue to be the law of the land . we're going to pass a government funding bill out of congress. hopefully by the end of this week to avert a government shutdown on march 27th . you mentioned on the conference call two days ago that there really, or yesterday, rather, there's probably no, there's nothing to avert the sequester or replace it, unless there's a large-scale agreement put in place by perhaps the president and speaker boehner by august. is that the truth? should americans really feel that the sequester is here to stay? at least through the rest of this fiscal year?

>> well, yeah, there two questions there. unfortunately, it looks like it's here to stay, at least for the coming weeks. and the issue will be, whether sometime between now and august, we can put together a budget agreement that will replace the sequester going forward. because the sequester right now is putting the brakes on economic growth . it will slow down economic growth this year by a full one-third. and we just cannot afford to do that. which is why you know, copying the european austerity model, which is what the republican budget does, is a prescription for fewer jobs, not more jobs. so hopefully we can replace it as part of an agreement.

>> congressman chris van holland of maryland, we appreciate you taking the time, thanks so much.

>> thank you, luke , great to be with you.