In remarks on the Senate floor today, U.S. Senator Bob Corker, R-Tenn., expressed disappointment in President Obama’s 2012 budget proposal, saying it displayed a “lack of urgency” to get federal spending under control. Corker has introduced the CAP Act to dramatically cut federal spending over the next decade.
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We are now on a fiscally irresponsible path here in the USA with the federal government spending 25% of GDP and having 4 straight budgets with over 1 trillion dollars a year in debt. That means our debt is now almost 16 trillion instead of the 9.9 trillion just 4 years ago. Senator Boozman seems to be on the right track.
iscally responsible path
WASHINGTON D.C. – U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) took to the Senate floor today to urge America to reject President Obama’s reckless budget proposal and focus on passing a fiscally responsible budget.
“When you get down to it, President Obama was never serious about his pledge to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. Like every budget this administration has proposed, this one was written with red ink. The deficit spending proposed in the President’s FY13 budget topped a trillion once again. This is an unsustainable rate of spending,” Boozman said in his speech.
The full text of the speech can be found here:
Madam President: On Monday morning, the country was presented with President Obama’s budget proposal for the fiscal year.
If you were to only listen to the President and his surrogates, you would think this proposal is great for the nation.
The acting budget director says the President’s budget “makes the right investments.”
The head of the President’s National Economic Council used a litany of sports metaphors to make the case that “the president has very much stepped up to the plate.”
And the President himself said his budget makes “some tough choices in order to put this country back on a more sustainable fiscal path.”
The reason they are so excited about this proposal is that, they believe, in an election year, they have offered every ally something to woe their support. This budget proposal truly does try to be everything for everyone. The problem is, however, no one wins with it.
When you scratch the surface of this proposal, the shine quickly wears off.
The deficit reduction claims that the administration throws out to defend this proposal don’t hold water.
You can’t claim $1 trillion in cuts that Congress pushed through during the debt ceiling debate as new cuts.
Nor can you say with all honesty that $850 billion in war savings are real cuts. This money was never going to be spent in the first place.
When you get down to it, President Obama was never serious about his pledge to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. Like every budget this administration has proposed, this one was written with red ink. The deficit spending proposed in the President’s FY13 budget topped a trillion once again. This is an unsustainable rate of spending.
On Monday, the President’s team was doing a full-scale PR push for this budget. At one point during the rollout, a reporter asked the President’s top economic aides whatever happened to that pledge the President had made to the American people.
Gone from their answers was the tough talk of making “difficult decisions” and facing “challenges we’ve long neglected.” Instead, his advisors were left to pull out the old standby excuse that the President and his team simply “didn’t realize how bad” the economy actually is when they first took over.
Clearly, they still don’t realize it now.
Not only does the President’s budget ignore the very real disarray our fiscal house is in, it makes the mess worse.
Since President Obama took office, our national debt has shot up 42%. Under President Obama’s watch, the national debt has jumped to a jaw-dropping $15.1 trillion.
This is the fourth year in a row that the budget would run a deficit above $1.29 trillion. When it comes to fiscal responsibility, this is not a record to be proud of.
America deserves better than a collection of tax hikes, phony savings and additional debt.
The President’s budget proposal is bad for seniors as it takes no steps to protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security, will hurt chances of an economic recovery through tax hikes and will add $11 trillion more to our already staggering national debt in a 10-year period.
We cannot continue to keep going down this road. America’s fiscal health is at stake. We’ve got to stop spending more than we take in. If not, we risk going the direction of Greece, Portugal, Italy and other European countries that have spent their way to the brink of default.
As we head into the final year of President Obama’s first term, we have already witnessed the most rapid increase in debt under any U.S. President. With our national debt already the size of our entire economy, the President has proposed a budget that calls for hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending.
If we followed through with this budget, deficit spending would exceed $600 billion every year but one over the next decade. Our national debt would grow to $18.7 trillion.
President Obama would like you to believe that if we simply raise taxes we can solve all of our fiscal problems. A recent CBO report shows that spending is the primary cause of our fiscal crisis and supports spending cuts rather than tax increases to reverse this trend. But the President is holding steadfast to his desire to raise taxes as an answer.
The President’s failed policy of borrowing, spending and taxing is just what the CBO is warning us to avoid. It hasn’t worked in the past and it won’t work in the future.
Washington does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. The fact that President Obama still believes we can tax our way out of the problem reveals a huge disconnect with the American people.
Madam President, when it comes to our country’s budget, Americans have a right to expect accountability, honesty and responsibility. This proposal has none of those.
If President Obama refuses to acknowledge and address the very real economic crisis facing our country, let’s show America that we will. We can do so by rejecting the White House’s proposal and passing a responsible budget that puts our nation back on a fiscally responsible path.
The Daily Hatch 