Looking, well be following up with the two of you, on the idea that if you triple the standard deduction and a number of senators of both Political Parties are interested in a significant increase in the standard deduction, you dont have so many people itemize and that is another possibility. But well follow up with you on the simplicity issue. I want to wrap up with one last question and that is, is there one thing you regret about what happened in 86 and you would counsel us in terms of what to do in the future . In other words, it is always easy to think about what is possible today in the abstract, but you two went through it. Anything you regret and you would like us to change . I know that one thing i regret about 86 and i was june a junior, Junior Congress person is senator bradley is right when he says no Current Congress can permanently bind a future congress from unraveling it but you can make it really hard. Can you put people through multiple votes and the like. So i can think of some things, but you two went through it. Anything you regret, one thing that you would tell us to be careful about . Well, i regret the deal i had to make with the oilies which is totally unjustified given to them and no other business got it but i needed their votes on the floor and what they wanted didnt cost very much money. And the iras were 24 billion. But do i wish i didnt have to put that in . Youre right. But that is one of the decisions you make on the spur of the moment. I literally made it the night we were doing the votes and i didnt ask for it and i put it in and have them be mad rather than put it in and think i double crossed them. So even in this world of great equality among the senators and the group of seven that senator packwood talked about, there was still the chairmans prerogative and i think that is what that was. Nobody nobody questioned that. Because weve been through the whole process. Do i regret anything . I regret that the bill lasted only a short period of time. As i said, it was a humbling experience, sand castles at the edge of the ocean and only a commitment from members of this committee and from president s succeeding president s, president clinton had a totally different idea of taxes. He would like to spread through the tax code and that helped unravel the deferential Capital Gains came back and we didnt treat the deferential, rate went up to 39 and there were hiding places for little provisions. My favorite being the one that says if you rent your house for would weeks, you pay no tax on that income. There was once a senator from georgia on this committee who had a lot of friends that had the masters Golf Tournament and big houses around the masters Golf Tournament, these things happen, but i dont regret that that was before my time. But i do think that you have to find some way i regret that it didnt last. That is what i say. Thank you to both of them. Senator, you have one of your top staffers, one i know, that was with you at the time. Do you care to introduce . Bill. Bill, stand up. If i can. He was the chief of staff of the finance committee at the time and i said if that bill wasnt my bill, it was our bill. He was critical in this and especially critical in dealing with the administration and with dick darwin. But it would not have passed but without him. I agree with that. I want to thank both of you. This means a lot of to me personally. And ive admired both of you as premier legislators and people who care for people and who both are extremely intelligent. So this has meant a lot to me and i appreciate it and with that, well recess until further notice. Thank you. Here are some of our feature programs for this weekend. On book tv saturday at 10 00 p. M. Eastern on after words eric foner on the efforts of free blacks and white abolitionists to help fugitive slaves. And saturday night at 10 00 the rise and leadership of isis in the middle east. And saturday morning starting at 9 00 eastern and throughout the day on cspan 3 American History tv joins historians and authors at the Abraham Lincoln symposium live from fords theater. And sunday evening artifacts related to president lincolns assassination. Find the complete Television Lineup on cspan. Org. Email us at comments c span. Org or send us a tweet. Join the conversation. Later today, the Brookings Institution hears from deputy secretary of state tony blinken to talk about current priorities and future prospects for u. S. Engagement in central asia. Thatll be live on cspan starting at 3 30 p. M. Eastern. And a Runoff Election is scheduled for april 7th. Rahm emanuel faces his challenger jesus garcia. Hosted by wttw tv in chicago. Neither candidate won a majority in februarys election. You can see the Candidates Forum tonight starting at 8 00 eastern on cspan. Tonight on American History tv, programs on the 150th anniversary of president Abraham Lincolns second inaugural. On march 4th 1865, less than six weeks before his assassination. At 8 00 p. M. , an event commemorating the president s second inaugural. After that a discussion on the making of the president s second inaugural address. Given just before the end of the civil war. Later this evening the last speeches given by president lincoln and Martin Luther king jr. Before their assassinations. Thats whats coming up tonight on American History tv on cspan 3. In early february, treasury secretary jack lui went before the house ways and Means Committee to discuss the budget request. The budget is available on our website, cspan. Org. All right, the committee will come to order. The hearing will come to order. Welcome to the ways and Means Committee. Welcome to the committee of ways and means hearing on president obamas Budget Proposal with our United States treasury secretary who is sitting far away down there. Secretary lui. This the is temporary quarters for us. Before we get started i want please be advised that members may submit written questions to the treasury secretary to be answered later in writing. Those questions and your answers will be made part of the formal record. We also understand that secretary lew has a hard stop at 1 00 so im going to run this tight so we can get to as many people as possible but wherever we cut off, we will start with that member in the queue when we pick up with the next hearing just to make sure, just to try and play it fair like that. Mr. Secretary, i want to say something. We got your budget yesterday. Ive got to say as a form other budget chairman im a little miffed. Four years in a row, which was when i was chair of the Budget Committee four years in a row youre late with your budget. The minute i leave, you produce it on time. What gives . In all seriousness, the one positive thing id like to say is it is a budget finally on time. Those of us in the budget world , that clock means a lot. It sets the tempo for congress. It means a lot of things so congratulations on finally giving us a budget on time. That said, the irony wasnt lost on me that the administration submitted their budget on ground hog day because it is the same thing every year, even a little worse. Youve raised taxes by 1. 7 trillion over the past six years. Now you want to raise them again by 2. 1 trillion. You want to tax savings and investment in Small Businesses. Sooner or later youre going to start looking for money in the couch cushions. I just want to take an opportunity here to make something really clear. Were not going to raise taxes on the American People. Theyre working harder and harder to get ahead and theyre falling behind. Wages are stagnating. They deserve a break, not another tax increase. The last thing this economy needs is another whopping tax increase. The kicker is even with all of these tax increases, you dont even balance the budget. Not even in ten years. Because you dont get spend under control. So im disappointed in this proposal. But as far as im concerned, id rather spend time not focusing on our differences. Lets instead try and find some time and a way to see if there is some Common Ground. I think there may be some opportunities to do that. First thing that comes to my mind is trade. We all agree that trade is good for america. Because more trade means higher pay. So our top priority is to put in place trade Promotion Authority, to get the best trade deals possible, we have to be in the best position possible and thats what tpa helps us do. Ill be interested to hear how the administration is helps us get tpa across the finish line. Next, weve got to fix this broken tax code. We want to fix it for are everybody. But with this administration, in the past we havent had very high hopes. But youve gradually grudgingly taken a few steps, in my opinion, in the right direction, though in my opinion also you need to move if a little further. For years you talked about fixing the tax code for corporations but not for families and Small Businesses. More recently after this committees constant insistence that tax reform cannot give an unfair advantage to big Public Companies over closely held familyowned businesses, the administration is now finally talking about helping Small Businesses as well. Even though your specific proposals have been far from adequate, at least it is a step in the right direction. Now the administrations taking a few more baby steps in the right direction by proposing a few ways to simplify the tax code for middle class families. So its progress. Not a lot, but well take it. So id be interested to hear what you had to say about tax reform. If we can find Common Ground we need to explore it. But ill tell you right now what the president is proposing for Small Businesses organized as passthroughs, Sole Proprietor ships, partnerships, s corporations, it just doesnt go far enough. It doesnt cut it. Small businesses, they are the engine of our economy and this committee is not going to do just anything. This committee is not going to leave them behind. This committee has to make sure that they are part of a solution. The tax code has to work for everybody. Especially families and Small Businesses. We need to make it simpler. We need to make it fairer and we need to make it flatter. We need to make it more globally competitive. We need to create more jobs. Thats the way to create jobs and build a healthy economy. So we want to work with this administration, we want to explore Common Ground. Weve got two big opportunities here potentially. On tax and on trade. So wed like to get this done. Lets see if we can find a way to Work Together. With that id like to yield to the distinguished Ranking Member, mr. Levin. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Welcome, mr. Secretary. As the chairman said, youre further away. Well try to make this more personal though. I wanted to start on a personal note to recognize the fact that someone who has served as our staff director on health, sabil bjorkland. This is her last hearing. Are you here . Thank you for all of your work. Again, welcome, mr. Secretary. This Administration First presented a budget to congress six years ago. Back then in the months of february and march of 2009, just weeks after president Obama Took Office, the economy lost more than 1. 5 million jobs. The most in any twomonth period since world war ii. Today the economy is experienced Significant Growth with 58 consecutive months of private sector job gains. Over the past four years, the u. S. Has put more people back to work than europe, japan, and all of the worlds major advanced economies combined. Thats hardly a stagnant economy. Republicans try to minimize that dramatic turnaround. But it is instructive to revisit what their partys president ial nominate in 2012 promised to achieve by the end of his first term in office. Mitt romney said, and i quote, i can tell you that over a period of four years, by virtue of the policies that we put in place, wed get the Unemployment Rate down to 6 and perhaps a little lower. Today, nearly two years after that deadline, the Unemployment Rate has dropped to 5. 6 . The ongoing challenge that we confront, a challenge that has persisted for the last three decades dating back to the reagan years is how to ensure that middle class families are not left out of the growth of our economy. It is now being experienced and will be experienced in the future. The president s budget takes direct aim at that challenge. It includes proposals to support working families by making child care more accessible, guaranteeing paid sick leave, and making permanent extensions of vital provisions, including the eitc, the Child Tax Credit, and the American Opportunity tax credit. It combines changes in the International Tax structure and provisions for the longterm needs of our nations infrastructure. It closes tax loopholes that predominantly benefit a select few. These proposals are not envy economics. They are everyone economics. Theyre not the economics of envy. They are the economics of working for all, not just the very wealthy. Through a fiscally responsible replacement for the sequester, the president s budget would allow us to invest in education, medical research, and other domestic priorities, as well as provide the resources, Social Security, medicare and the irs need to serve the American People. And would provide for the everchanging needs of our these proposals are not envy economics. They are everyone economics. Theyre not the economics of envy. They are the economics of working for all, not just the very wealthy. Through a fiscally responsible replacement for the sequester, the president s budget would allow us to invest in education, medical research, and other domestic priorities, as well as provide the resources, Social Security, medicare and the irs need to serve the American People. And would provide for the everchanging needs of our military as it confronts new challenges. I hope the republicans give these and other proposals presented within the president s budget, mr. Chairman, the full and serious consideration that they deserve. One of the many outstanding issues in the trade pacific negotiations, currency manipulation is mainly in the purview of treasury. Over the past decade, currency manipulation by foreign governments has resulted in an increase in unfairly traded imports into the u. S. It has made it more difficult for u. S. Exporters to compete in foreign markets. It has cost us millions of middle class jobs. Tpp includes a number of former currency manipulators such as japan and other countries are discussing tpp who have been in the past manipulating their currencies, including china, korea and taiwan. Each of these countries is party to the imf which already prohibits currency manipulation and has developed guidelines to define when it occurs. The problem is that the imf lacks any enforcement provision. Thats why i propose taking the existing imf guidelines and building on them so they can be addressed through tpp. Ive heard concerns that the u. S. Monetary policy might be at risk if we put such a provision in the tpp. The imf guidelines clearly spell out that u. S. Monetary policy, including quantitative easing, is not currency manipulation. The first factor is protracted largescale interventions in currency markets, and the u. S. Has not engaged in that. The second factor is having an excessive amount of Foreign Exchange reserves. I could go through each factor. But suffice it to say that the imf has explicitly supported each round of u. S. Quantitative easement since the great recession. U. S. Monetary policy would not be put at risk by addressing currency through tpp. I look forward to discussing with my colleagues, mr. Chairman, in a bipartisan and bicamera basis and with the administration how to include a strong enforceable currency manipulation provision, as well as tackling the other major outstanding issues in tpp that i outlined late last month in a document that i called a path toward an effective tpp agreement. Thank you, mr. Secretary, for your dedication and your service to our nation for many years, going back to the days when you were still much younger, working for tip oneill. And im very happy to welcome you back before this committee. Thank you, mr. Levin. Secretary lew, thank you for your time today. Your entire written testimony will be included in the record. If you could try to summarize it in five minutes so we could because we know you have a hard stop. Try to summarize it in five minutes so we can get to our questioning wed appreciate it. The time is yours. Thank you very much, chairman ryan, Ranking Member levin, members of the committee. It is good to be with you here this morning to discuss the president s budget. Mr. Chairman, i think i know this is the first time ive appeared since youve taken over the gavel of this committee. I congratulate you and look forward to working together in a bipartisan basis to get things done. A year ago president obama said the 2014 would be a breakthrough year for our economy. The evidence is now clear that over the past 12 months americas m