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Ryan and Sessions: ‘Unprecedented 1,200 Days’ Since Senate Democrats Passed A Budget
WASHINGTON – House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions of Alabama issued the following joint statement marking the 1,200th day since Senate Democrats have last adopted a budget:
“Tomorrow marks another disappointing record for the United States Senate: Senate Majority Leader Reid and his Democrat conference will have gone an unprecedented 1,200 days without adopting a budget plan as required by law. Not only have they failed to adopt a budget, but with America under threat of financial calamity, they have refused to even present a plan for public scrutiny. Last year, Majority Leader Reid said it would be ‘foolish’ to do a budget and the legally required Budget Committee mark-up was cancelled. No plan from his conference has seen the light of day. He refuses to disclose who he plans to tax and how he plans to spend taxpayers’ money.
“This year, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad committed to bringing forth a budget plan and conducting a mark-up, and was shut down by the Majority Leader. Once again, the conference put forward no proposal and offered nothing on the Senate floor. The Senate Majority did not offer up a single plan or even cast a vote in support of a single plan. By contrast, House Republicans laid out and adopted a credible, responsible plan that avoids this looming debt crisis with spending cuts and pro-growth tax reform while preserving the safety net.
“Never before has our nation needed a budget and a long-term financial plan as badly as it needs one now. The Congressional Budget Office stated this week that the federal government is on track to run another trillion-dollar deficit this year and our debt will continue to explode with this continued lack of leadership. In addition to huge deficits, we face a $4 trillion tax increase at the end of this year and a sequester that Defense Secretary Panetta said will ‘do catastrophic damage to the military.’ Responsible and moral leadership requires the Senate to meet its legal obligation to pass a budget and to begin to address the fiscal crisis that is fast approaching our nation.”
A Message to the Senate: Stop Pointing Fingers and Do Your Job! #duringthelastbudget
Bankrupting America, a project of Public Notice, has released a new video showing the continued dysfunction in Washington. The video is a call to action for Americans to get involved by calling their Senator urging them to ‘stop pointing fingers and do their job’.
Congress last passed a budget on April 29, 2009, almost three years ago. Since then, Members of Congress from both parties have failed to work together to perform one of the federal government’s most basic functions.
Bankrupting America is starting a campaign to say ‘Enough is Enough’ and get Congress to do their jobs and pass a budget. Call your Senator at 1-888-760-7997 and tell them to pass a budget.
The Budget Games
Both sides of the aisle have taken turns blaming each other for our nation’s fiscal situation. After years of talk, will we actually see action?
WE’VE HEARD THE RHETORIC; WHERE’S THE RESPONSIBILITY?
- The Last Passed Budget Resolution
- Economic Snapshot
- What They’re Saying
The Last Passed Budget Resolution
The last time Congress completed the budget process was on April 29, 2009.
- The House passed the conference report for the budget on April 29, 2009, by a vote of 233 – 193.
- The Senate passed the conference report for the budget on April 29, 2009, by a vote of 53 – 43.
Economic Snapshot
Today, 5.3 million Americans have spent over 27 weeks looking for work. Additionally, since President Obama took office in 2009, the public debt has increased nearly 45% as of this date, it has increased 47 percent to be exact. (To be clear, we rounded down to 45 percent in the video.).
What They’re Saying
In both the House and the Senate, key political players have involved themselves in smearing the opposition while the country continues to wait on a long-term plan for fiscal sustainability:
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Sen. Kent Conrad, Chair of the Senate Budget Committee (D-North Dakota)
Brit Hume: We’re now approaching three years since a budget was passed, and you’re about to retire. How do you feel about that?
Conrad: I feel good about retiring; that’s for sure.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin)
They didn’t want their fingerprints on a plan. That’s why they didn’t pass a budget the last two years.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware)
The reality is we’re not going to get a budget resolution out of the Senate.
Sen. Kent Conrad, Chair of the Senate Budget Committee (D-North Dakota)
There’s very little chance we’re going to get the two sides together before the election.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama)
The leadership in this body won’t even bring up a budget. He said it was foolish.
Sen. Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader (D-Nevada)
House Republicans are going to make another excuse, create another diversion, and avoid another tough choice.
Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio)
The Senate’s done nothing. There’ve been no markups over in the Senate. There ain’t even been any effort in the Senate, three years, three years and they’ve failed to move a budget.
Sen. Kent Conrad, Chair of the Senate Budget Committee (D-North Dakota)
What we don’t have is a longer-term plan.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri)
The reason we didn’t get a budget last year is because Mitch McConnell objected.
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Arizona)
Senate Democrats now for the third year in a row will not have passed a budget. That’s their job.
Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nevada)
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We’re not doing our jobs, we’re not doing our business, and the American people are suffering because of it.
BANKRUPTING AMERICA LAUNCHES ONLINE ADVOCACY
CAMPAIGN URGING SENATE TO VOTE ON A BUDGET
ARLINGTON, VA – Bankrupting America, a project of Public Notice, today announced a multipronged online educational advocacy campaign leading up to the three-year anniversary since the last time Congress passed a budget. The campaign includes a web video, online advertising, a Twitter hashtag campaign and a grassroots call to action urging the Senate to pass a budget.
Congress last passed a budget on April 29, 2009, almost three years ago. Since then, Members of Congress from both parties have failed to work together to perform one of the federal government’s most basic functions.
Gretchen Hamel, executive director of Public Notice, issued the following statement announcing the campaign:
“It is unfathomable that Congress continues to spend taxpayer dollars without passing a budget. Families across America have to plan out budgets to make ends meet and they should expect the same from their elected officials.
“Congress needs to stop pointing fingers and do its job. The purpose of this campaign is to raise awareness among taxpayers that their representatives in Washington are failing in their most basic of duties.”
The Twitter hashtag campaign will involve tweets of what was happening in the world when the Senate last passed a budget. For example: No one had heard of an iPad #duringthelastbudget
Chairman Ryan Welcomes Chairman Conrad’s Reversal on Budgeting
Senate Budget Committee decides to consider a budget resolution – 1,085 days since the Senate last passed a budget
WASHINGTON –Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad reversed course yesterday on his insistence that the federal government didn’t need a budget resolution despite four straight trillion-dollar deficits and a looming fiscal crisis on the horizon. The announcement of a budget resolution markup in the Senate Budget Committee comes after the Democrat-controlled Senate already missed the statutory deadline (April 15) for consideration of a budget. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan welcomed Conrad’s announcement, issuing the following statement:
“It is encouraging to see Senator Conrad recognize the need for Congress to budget and prioritize Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars. Proposing a budget is an obvious first step for those seeking to engage in an honest debate on our nation’s fiscal future. I hope Senator Conrad’s budget grasps the gravity of our fiscal challenges, instead of following the President’s lead of simply taking more from hardworking Americans to fuel structurally broken programs run by the federal government. I hope Senator Conrad can build consensus among his colleagues to advance a credible budget, as we have done in the House. I hope Senator Conrad can convince Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to also change his mind on whether or not the federal government needs a budget.
“It is a grave disappointment that the U.S. Senate has refused to pass a budget for three consecutive years. With a debt crisis looming on the horizon, it is unconscionable that we lack willing partners at the White House or with the Senate Democratic Leadership to advance structural reforms required to get America back on track. By refusing engage in an honest budget debate, the President and his party’s leaders continue to put the next election above the next generation. With the right leadership in place, I remain hopeful that reformers can work together to meet our generation’s defining challenge of ensuring greater opportunities for generations to come.”
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan: President’s Budget Ensures Debt Crisis and Decline
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.”
—
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
—
A bicameral fact sheet prepared by the House Budget Committee and Senate Budget Committee:
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.
