WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, was joined by every Committee Republican today in releasing a letter to Chairman Kent Conrad. Text of the letter follows: Dear Chairman Conrad: We appreciate your stated commitment to mark up a fiscal year 2013 budget resolution in the Budget Committee. We hope […]
“The Senate Committee on the Budget is required to report a budget resolution for fiscal year 2013 by April 1, 2012… it is critical that we have a comprehensive understanding of how the president’s health care law will impact this nation’s unsustainable debt course… Secretary Sebelius was [recently] unable to explain either the cause of […]
“Stunningly, in his first press conference of the year, President Obama did not have a word to say about America’s extraordinary debt threat, which puts our economy, our security, and our nation at risk… He talks about our economic health, but somehow ignores the fact that he submitted a budget plan only days ago that […]
“The president is required by law to respond to the Medicare Trustees’ annual warning, and—as a matter of fundamental leadership—is duty-bound to do so. Meanwhile, the Democratic leaders in the Senate refuse to bring a budget plan to the floor for the third straight year. The livelihoods, savings, and futures of millions of hardworking Americans […]
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued its annual report on government duplication today. This is the second year of a three-year process, during which the GAO will comprehensively review the federal government to identify duplication, fragmentation, and waste. Since the review’s inception, GAO has found 66 areas of duplication encompassing over 1,500 individual programs. This […]
“The Democrats running Washington want higher taxes that will shrink the private sector in order to expand the wasteful public sector.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today about a new report from the Government Accountability Office detailing over one thousand examples of waste and […]
“I fear… that these budget hearings may not be a good use of your time. The Senate Democrat leadership is refusing, for the third straight year, to bring a budget plan to floor. Has the Senate Democrat majority forgotten the warning of Admiral Mike Mullen, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who told us the […]
“I will ask again as I did at the hearing… does the president propose to increase or decrease spending levels from those agreed to under the Budget Control Act in August? … I was shocked when you—the president’s budget chief—strenuously resisted answering this fundamental question. Eventually, you responded that the president’s budget did, in fact, […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued a statement today following Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s testimony before the Committee: “The Administration continues to persist in the duplicity that this budget cuts spending when it increases spending by $1.5 trillion over the levels in current law. Even giving them credit […]
“Secretary Geithner… you are a capable and loyal member of the administration. But, more fundamentally, you are a servant of the American people. You have an opportunity today to help us understand both the dangerous unsustainability of our fiscal path, and the depth of change needed to right our course… History will judge our conversation […]
The president’s 2013 budget claims it will result in declining deficits from $1.3 trillion in 2012 (8.5 percent of GDP) to $0.9 trillion in 2013 (5.5 percent of GDP) to no less than $0.6 trillion in any subsequent year. The budget fails the pledge the president made on February 23, 2009 at his Fiscal Responsibility […]
“Given the gravity of our fiscal crisis—and Mr. Zeints’ obligation to present honest facts to the public—I asked him whether, if he was shown to be wrong, he would resign. I will soon be sending him a letter expressing my concerns from today’s hearing and pressing for a straightforward answer to a straightforward question. Mr. […]
“The White House claims they have introduced a plan to achieve $4 trillion in deficit reduction… But these assertions rely on a calculated series of budget gimmicks. An honest analysis proves that the president’s plan achieves only $273 billion in total deficit reduction over ten years… Under this plan, we will accumulate $11 trillion in […]
“I am glad Chairman Conrad will be marking-up a budget in committee. But the mark-up will be a doomed exercise if your own majority leader decrees that the budget process will be shut down. Majority Leader Reid has effectively declared both a Senate Democrat budget – and the President’s budget – dead on arrival.” “While […]
A Detailed Summary and Analysis of President Obama’s FY 2012 Budget
“By refusing to lay out a budget plan for public examination—a fact no one can deny—the Democrat Senate has forfeited the high privilege to lead this chamber.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today as Majority Leader Reid announced that, for the third year in […]
“Americans have a right to expect honesty, transparency, and accountability from their elected officials. They have a right to know that a cut is a cut, an increase is an increase, and that a price tag is accurate.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, and U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe […]
The Congressional Budget Office baseline budget outlook dramatically understates—by nearly $6 trillion—the deficit and debt path that the nation is on. The agency’s current law outlook shows deficits declining from $1.3 trillion last year to $1.1 trillion this year, and dropping further until fiscal year 2018, when it starts rising again. Using a realistic baseline, […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the release of the latest CBO Budget and Economic Outlook and the Committee’s estimation that our nation’s actual debt path would produce $5.7 trillion in debt above the CBO baseline: “An honest analysis tells us that spending […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today ahead of the vote on the resolution of disapproval on President Obama’s requested debt limit increase: “The president’s request to borrow another $1.2 trillion dollars—all of which will be spent and gone within the next twelve months—brings America […]
“The president says he wants an ‘America built to last.’ But we can’t do that with borrowed money. Debt is not an asset, spending is not a virtue, and borrowing is not a future.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered an opening statement today at a Committee hearing […]
WASHINGTON—In response to President Obama’s State of the Union address, U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement tonight: “It was stunning how thoroughly and deliberately the president ignored the ominous threat hanging over this country—our surging $15 trillion debt. I stand ready, eager, and willing to […]
“Senate Democrats abandoned their official duty to prioritize Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars and tackle our nation’s most pressing economic challenges—dealing a painful blow to fiscal progress that may be felt for some time.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chairman of the House Budget […]
News reports appear to confirm that, as laid out in the State of the Union address, President Obama’s budget will propose using caps on war spending as a gimmick to either “offset” new spending or reduce the deficit. This offset is an accounting trick because it claims artificial savings from money that would never be […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today in response to reports that President Obama has decided to reject the permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a plan that has been estimated to immediately result in the creation of 20,000 new jobs: “This is a […]
In one week, on January 24th (the same day as President Obama’s State of the Union address), 1,000 days will have elapsed since Senate Democrats offered a budget plan for the nation. Higher debt leads to slower economic growth. Empirical studies show that high levels of government debt inhibit economic growth by creating uncertainty, displacing […]