House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan: President’s Budget Ensures Debt Crisis and Decline

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President’s budget reveals broken promises, failed leadership and a diminished future


WASHINGTON – Earlier today, President Obama introduced his Fiscal Year 2013 budget request, calling for record levels of spending increases, tax hikes, and debt. The President’s budget breaks his promise to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term, and it breaks his obligation to all Americans to confront the nation’s spending-driven debt crisis.

In response to the President’s failure of leadership, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin issued the following statement:

“President Obama’s irresponsible budget is a recipe for a debt crisis and the decline of America. His refusal to honestly confront our nation’s most pressing challenges does real harm to the economic security of millions of American families. The $1.9 trillion tax increase proposed in his budget will make it harder for businesses to create jobs and for workers to spur economic growth.

“This budget does nothing to prevent the bankruptcy of critical programs, threatening the health and retirement security of current and future seniors. Worse, it continues the President’s policy of letting an unaccountable board of bureaucrats cut Medicare in ways that will lead to denied care for seniors.  The broken promises and recycled gimmicks contained in this budget have dramatically widened this President’s growing credibility deficit.

“Our families, seniors, children and grandchildren deserve better than this reckless budget and this dismal failure of leadership. As Chairman of the House Budget Committee, I will continue to work with my colleagues – from both parties where possible – to advance bold solutions that lift our crushing burden of debt and ensure a future of opportunity, growth and prosperity.”

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Key facts from the President’s budget:

  • Spends Too Much:
    • $47 trillion of government spending over the next decade
    • Proposes a net increase over current spending projections
  • Taxes Too Much:
    • $1.9 trillion in new taxes
    • Raises taxes, not to pay down the debt, but to fuel more government spending
  • Borrows Too Much:
    • Four straight years of trillion-dollar-plus deficits; no plan to reduce the debt
    • Gross debt at the end of FY22: $25.9 trillion
  • Budget Gimmicks & Broken Promises
    • Overstates new deficit reduction by taking credit for savings already enacted
    • Exploits discredited budget gimmick by “not spending” nearly $1 trillion that was never going to be spent

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A bicameral fact sheet prepared by the House Budget Committee and Senate Budget Committee:

 

President’s Budget Charts Path to Debt and Decline

President Obama’s budget is bad for jobs, bad for seniors, and makes the economy worse.
House Budget Committee And Senate Budget Committee Republican Summary Of President’s FY2013 Budget

The President has not merely ducked from our fiscal and economic challenges, but—with his fourth straight budget flop—he has advanced policies that dangerously accelerate the crisis before us. His gimmick-filled budget fails to reduce the fast-rising debt, permanently entrenches unsustainable levels of government spending, and erects new barriers to upward mobility. His plan stifles economic growth, threatens the health and retirement security of millions of Americans, and commits the next generation to a diminished future.

Spends Too Much: $47 Trillion In Ten Years — A Net Increase Over Current Projections

After four straight years of trillion-dollar-plus deficits (breaking his promise to cut the deficit in half), President Obama’s budget worsens our fiscal crisis and speeds the country to bankruptcy. Three years after the passage of the President’s trillion-dollar spending stimulus, this gimmick-filled budget calls for more wasteful spending taken from workers’ paychecks or borrowed from abroad. The massive spending increases are greater than the few proposed spending reductions.

 Spending in FY13: $3.8 trillion
 Spending in FY22: $5.8 trillion
 Increased spending concealed through gimmicks: $1.5 trillion
 Total government spending over the next ten years: $47 trillion

Taxes Too Much: $1.9 Trillion In New Taxes

The President’s budget imposes a heavy cost for its commitment to intrusive government—diminishing economic opportunity by imposing the largest tax hike in history. Taking trillions more tax dollars from hardworking American families will further depress wages and destroy jobs at a time when millions of Americans remain out of work. In total, this budget imposes $1.9 trillion in new taxes on families, small businesses, and job creators—all to fund wasteful Washington spending.

 Income tax hike: $1.4 trillion  Death tax hike: $143 billion  Other tax increases: $340 billion

Borrows Too Much: $11 Trillion Added To The Debt

Under President Obama’s watch, the federal government’s total debt has surpassed the size of the economy—undermining job creation today and threatening a debt crisis tomorrow. The President’s budget ignores the drivers of our debt, bringing America perilously close to a European-style crisis:

 Deficit in FY12: $1.3 trillion  Deficit in FY13: $901 billion  Deficit in FY22: $704 billion
 Gross debt accumulated during President’s first term: $6.4 trillion
 Gross debt at the end of FY22: $25.9 trillion
 Annual interest payments on the debt by FY22: nearly $1 trillion

Gimmicks, Tricks and Broken Promises

The President’s meager deficit-reduction claims seek to take credit for over $2 trillion in savings already in law and the exploitation of discredited budget gimmicks, including almost $1 trillion in “savings” from money that was never requested and never to be spent in Iraq and Afghanistan.

By failing to put forward long-overdue reforms, his budget allows Social Security to fall into bankruptcy (imposing an across-the-board 23 percent cut on seniors) and gives unaccountable government bureaucrats control over cutting Medicare in ways that would result in denied care for seniors. No credible action is taken to lift the crushing burden of debt. This President’s empty promises are quickly becoming broken promises for millions of Americans.

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