“Majority Leader Reid’s plan dramatically overstates the spending restraint it achieves, using Washington math that has been the cause of our surging debt… This proposal would mean that total spending over ten years would still be increased, not reduced. I am not impressed.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, […]
“It is likely the president and the Democrat Senate, who control the levers of power in Washington, will continue to resist the spending cuts we need to restore fiscal balance… It’s time for those who oppose Cut, Cap, and Balance to bring forward their alternative. The media, the public, and lawmakers should demand it.” WASHINGTON—U.S. […]
“After my staff and I have had additional time to analyze the summary, even more questions and concerns have arisen. Serious flaws have been identified.… The production of the Gang’s summary at the last minute also underscores my severe concerns over how this process has unfolded… Senate Democrats and the White House have fiercely resisted […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today in response to the release of an executive summary of a not-yet-final deficit reduction proposal from the bipartisan group of senators known as the “Gang of Six”: “I congratulate my colleagues who worked on this proposal. They have […]
“Up to now, the president has not been a partner in deficit reduction, but an obstacle. He must, for the first time since taking office, present to the American people a plan with specific, immediate, and lasting spending cuts… Whatever the White House ultimately produces we must remember that $2 trillion in spending cuts is […]
“If the party that controls the Senate believes it can appropriate money without any overall plan for spending, borrowing, and taxing, it ought to be able to muster 60 votes to support that view.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, today offered an amendment to the Military Construction and […]
“One of these [budgetary] enforcement mechanisms is a prohibition against the consideration of appropriations bills in the absence of a budget… I have a duty as the Ranking Member of the Budget Committee… to oppose cloture on this [appropriations bill] and to raise the 303(c) point of order should cloture be invoked… I am also […]
“Enough empty promises… We need a seismic restoration of responsibility—and it will not happen unless, for the first time since taking office, President Obama puts a credible budget plan on paper.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today after learning that the White House’s […]
“Reports recently issued by the House Budget Committee and the minority staff of the Senate Budget Committee demonstrate that the federal government’s dramatic overspending and enormous debt burden are directly hurting job creation. Employers large and small know that today’s excessive borrowing will be tomorrow’s tax hikes and interest-rate increases. This lack of confidence in the future puts […]
“To date, Republicans have offered a number of proposals to reduce and control spending, including a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution… However, as we understand it, [Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad’s] latest budget—announced last week—has, like those prior to it, only been unveiled to his Democratic colleagues with no scheduled action on it. We […]
“The Budget Committee Chairman says he now, once again, has a budget that he is sharing secretly with his Democrat colleagues. Yet we hear no indication that a full text of the resolution will be made public or, crucially, that it will be slated for a public mark-up in the Committee as required by law… […]
“No real work is scheduled in the Senate this week on the budget, nor is any on the debt ceiling. Instead, we are moving today to a Libya resolution. This resolution, not requested by the president, is not why we asked to cancel recess… For this reason, I will oppose cloture today and urge the […]
Speeches And Op-Eds From White House Won’t Save Medicare WASHINGTON—The Obama administration continues to overlook its legal obligation to address Medicare’s growing fiscal imbalance. Instead of offering constructive solutions to avert a looming crisis, the president’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, published a new opinion piece containing numerous falsehoods about the Republicans’ […]
“On the floor, we spend week after week on bills that have little or nothing to do with our economic danger. We name post offices and courthouses but ignore the gathering fiscal storm. And now the Senate is scheduled to take next week off… Before the Memorial Day recess I presented to the Majority Leader […]
“We respectfully request that you provide us, in detail, the most recent version of the proposals that were discussed, including a list of any tax increases for which the White House reportedly advocated… The Congressional Budget Office needs time to review and analyze the proposals that were discussed, and the Budget and Finance Committees need […]
“For weeks, Republicans have insisted that the Senate should not recess without working to control our enormous surging debt and unsustainable spending… But now it looks like we may be in session only for show—it seems no work is slated on cutting spending, developing a budget, or addressing the debt ceiling… Given where we are […]
“It will be unacceptable for the White House talks, or any talks, to produce a controversial decision at the 11th hour and for its passage to then be demanded in panic… Additionally, raising the debt ceiling should not be accompanied by tax hikes. A punishing tax increase would not only threaten needed growth, it would […]
“The CBO data also reaffirms that our surging debt is being spurred by excessive spending and insufficient growth—not because Washington isn’t taxing enough—and that excessive government borrowing is already slowing economic growth… If CBO’s long-term projections come to pass, America as we know it will be in peril.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member […]
Top Republicans on Senate and House Budget Committees call upon President to respond to Medicare trigger WASHINGTON—Earlier today, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, and Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, sent a letter to President Obama following his Administration’s failure to submit a proposal, as […]
“Our crushing debt undermines confidence in our economy, weakens our standing in the world, and results in devastating job loss for Americans… Nearly every expert that has testified before this committee has sounded the warning call. So too has the IMF, Moody’s, our own Federal Reserve—all have cautioned us to turn back from the abyss […]
“The president and his party leaders still don’t get it. If they think we can now proceed to some meager compromise, they are gravely mistaken. This Congress must deliver whatthe situation demands… One way or another, we are going to reduce spending andrestore prosperity. The fight goes on.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member […]
March 2, 2011 Contact: Stephen Miller, 202.224.0642 “Just because you call something an ‘investment’ doesn’t make it so… The president’s plan worsens a desperate fiscal circumstance and fails to invest—by any honest measure—in our nation’s energy future. America has vast, proven energy reserves and yet the president continues to lock those away in the pursuit […]
“We will fight every day, week, and month to make the government leaner and the economy more prosperous.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, made the following comments today following the passage of a continuing resolution that funds the government over the next two weeks at approximately $4 billion […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, made the following comment today following the release of a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that highlighted redundancy in federal programs: “Today’s GAO report proves that for all the president’s rhetoric about tough cuts, he has failed to make some of […]
“Interest on our debt was $196 billion last year—three times as large as the total education budget this year. In 10 years, under the president’s plan, the annual interest payment will be $844 billion, 10 times the size of the budget’s call for education spending… You cannot win the future for our children with borrowed […]
Today, GAO identified massive duplication, fragmentation, and other inefficiencies that cost taxpayers billions of dollars every year in waste and degraded service—all while President Obama’s budget surges federal spending across the board and adds $13 trillion to the debt. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued its first annual report on government duplication today. The report […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, today commented on the second anniversary of the enactment of President Obama’s stimulus package, which spent nearly $1 trillion in a failed effort to revive the economy and bring down unemployment. Sessions made his remarks at a hearing with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, […]
“We need to stop growing the government and start growing the economy. That means reducing spending now. The situation is too urgent—and the need for a new direction too great—for us to delay action any longer.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered an opening statement today at a […]
A Detailed Summary and Analysis of President Obama’s FY 2012 Budget