THE PRESIDENT’S BUDGET SPENDS, TAXES, AND BORROWS TOO MUCH – STIFLING JOB GROWTH TODAY AND THREATENING OUR ECONOMIC FUTURE In challenging times, a chief executive must lead. But President Obama has failed to confront the fiscal and economic challenges before us. Instead, he continues down the same unsustainable path: growing the government, weakening the economy, […]
“The president has spoken in recent days about winning the future. But his budget reads more like a blueprint for losing the future.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, released the following statement today in response to President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2012 budget proposal, which was submitted to Congress […]
“[President Reagan] lowered taxes dramatically, including a reduction in the top rate from seventy percent to less than thirty. And he reined in a runaway bureaucracy that had trapped innovation and productivity in a labyrinth of regulation and red tape… We would be wise to remember the lessons of that era. Peace through strength; prosperity […]
• The president’s “freeze” would continue dramatically increased spending levels at a time when we have a $1.5 trillion deficit, producing an estimated $3.8 trillion in accumulated deficits over the next 5 years.[1] It maintains inflated levels of non-defense discretionary spending while allowing for ongoing increases in the rest of the budget. • The “freeze” pushes […]
“Health reform is part of deficit reform.” President Barack Obama, Remarks to the Families USA Conference (January 27, 2011) ***** “How, then, does the ACA magically convert $1 trillion in new spending into painless deficit reduction? It’s all about budget gimmicks, deceptive accounting, and implausible assumptions used to create the false impression of fiscal discipline.” […]
“In two weeks, on February 14th, the president will submit a new budget to Congress. This may be his last chance to get this right. For the president to be a credible voice in this debate he must put forward a budget with significantly lower spending levels. He cannot present Congress with the same unserious […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, responded tonight to President Obama’s State of the Union address and the president’s plan to maintain increased levels of discretionary spending: “Massive federal spending has placed our nation on an unsustainable path. And yet tonight the President pledged to continue down this perilous […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, responded tonight to President Obama’s State of the Union address and the president’s plan to maintain increased levels of discretionary spending: “Massive federal spending has placed our nation on an unsustainable path. And yet tonight the President pledged to continue down this perilous […]
Democrats used budget gimmicks to manipulate the CBO score of Obamacare. The truth: It adds nearly $700 billion to the deficit in the first ten years alone. The Gimmicks: • Counting a full ten years of tax increases to pay for only six years of new health care spending. Imaginary savings from Democrats, but deficits […]
“Our goal is not an era of austerity but an era of prosperity.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), incoming Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered an opening statement at today’s hearing, prior to the testimony of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, concerning America’s economic situation and growing debt. Sessions’ remarks, as prepared, follow: […]
[Note: To view a one-pager on debt and jobs, please click here.] “Our fast-rising debt, and our inability to adopt a credible budget plan, is shattering economic confidence and jeopardizing our future. Yet Senate Democrats refuse to put forward such a budget plan or to confront the debt that they themselves have surged… To put […]
768 ……………… Days since the Democrat Senate has passed a budget resolution $3.2 trillion ……. Debt accumulated since a budget was last passed $7.1 trillion ……. Total federal spending over that time $413 billion ……. Net interest payments over that time 2024 ……………. Projected year that Medicare will go bankrupt 9.1 ……………… Percent of workforce currently […]
“The persistence of slow growth and unacceptably high unemployment demonstrates the failure of this administration’s attempts to revive the economy by artificial means… Our inability to honestly budget got us into this mess. But the Democrat-led Senate, which has not passed a budget plan in 765 days, has decided this year not to present a […]
“The Majority Leader’s decision not to bring adjournment to a vote… is a stark admission that the Democrat Senate cannot justify to the American people its unwillingness to work on a budget. So indefensible is their stance that they have resorted to ducking a simple vote on whether to adjourn the chamber for Memorial Day […]
“In this time of economic danger, the Senate continues to stonewall any and all action on a FY2012 budget. For this reason, we respectfully request that you delay any adjournment of this body until you or members of your party in the Senate bring forward a budget resolution and schedule a meeting of the Budget […]
“The reason we have not seen a budget from Chairman Conrad and the Democrat Senate is because they know that they can’t put forward a plan that wins the support of both their caucus and of the American people… The Democrat strategy is just to attack, vilify, and disparage House Republicans because they did the […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement about the potential for a budget mark-up next week and the need for the public and the press to be able to review the proposed resolution 72 hours in advance: “After weeks of delay, I have been informed that […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today as the Budget Committee released a new staff analysis that revealed the president’s framework to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion would grow it $2.2 trillion beyond the CBO baseline.Remarking on the new deficit commission convened by President […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, joined by all of the Committee’s Republican Senators, wrote today to reiterate to Chairman Kent Conrad the Senators’ belief that any budget markup should be conducted in an open and transparent manner. The Senators’ requests include having the text posted online in advance […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, released the following statement today after the White House scheduled two summit meetings on the budget this week, a decision that would appear to necessitate the cancellation of this week’s much-anticipated mark- up of a Senate Democrat budget, most recently expected to begin […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, made the following comments today as details began to emerge about the composition of the Senate Democrat budget, which has yet to be presented publicly. News reports have indicated that the balance of tax increases to spending cuts is likely to be as […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following comment today after news reports surfaced that the not-yet-public Democrat budget will tax more than it saves: “I am troubled by reports that the Senate Democrat budget will tax more than it saves—cutting only $1.5 trillion over ten years at […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following comment today after news reports revealed that budget negotiations among the ‘‘Gang of Six’’ may have hit an impasse. Democrat leaders have used these negotiations as a pretext for not moving forward with the Senate budget process weeks after the […]
WASHINGTON—All 11 Republican members of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee—Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Sen. John Thune (R-SD), Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), Sen. Patrick Toomey (R-PA), Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH)—issued […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following comment today in response to the announcement by Senate Democrats that a budget markup will be indefinitely “deferred”: “I appreciate that Senator Conrad has recognized the serious concerns that I, my Republican colleagues, and millions of Americans have over the […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, and Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), the newest member of the Budget Committee, authored a letter signed by all 47 Republican senators pressing Majority Leader Reid for action on the stalled FY2012 Senate budget. Though it requires only 51 votes, Senate Democrats have not […]
WASHINGTON—–U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, wrote to his colleagues in the Senate today, on both sides of the aisle, to share a white paper produced by his Budget Committee staff that thoroughly reviewed and analyzed a large body of empirical research over how other nations have successfully, or […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, made the following statement today after the Social Security and Medicare Trustees issued their annual reports on the financial status of the two programs, which show the projected insolvency date of Social Security has moved up to 2036 from 2037 and the insolvency […]