“When we received a copy of the legislation yesterday, we were expecting the Office of Management and Budget—which enjoys a five hundred person staff—to provide a precise and detailed estimate of the fiscal impact of the president’s proposal. But no such information was provided… Perhaps even more troubling, however, is that despite the emphatic promise […]
“Today’s dismal jobs numbers further demonstrate that the country needs much more than a speech—it needs the confidence and certainty that only a concrete fiscal plan can provide.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the president’s upcoming address to Congress in light of […]
“The president?s intention to release the details of his spending and deficit reduction plans separately, over a series of weeks, suggests he does not comprehend the debilitating impact America?s debt is having on the economy right now, and casts additional doubt on the president?s sincerity in paying for his latest „stimulus? program.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff […]
“The president’s plan makes a mockery of the recent debt limit deal. That agreement cut $7 billion in appropriations next year but the president now wants to borrow hundreds of billions more to finance a second stimulus package… Saying that something is ‘paid for’ isn’t enough… Borrowing even more to spend immediately in exchange for […]
800 …………. Days since the Democrat Senate has passed a budget resolution $3.2trillion …. Debt accumulated since a budget was last passed $7.3trillion …. Total federal spending over that time $439billion …. Net interest payments over that time 2024 …………. Projected year that Medicare will go bankrupt 2036 …………. Projected year that Social Security will […]
Tax Hikes Won’t Work, Aren’t Needed To close this year’s $1.4 trillion deficit through tax increases alone, individual and corporate rates would have to more than double overnight. Even if all of the income of those earning more than $1 million were confiscated at a 100 percent marginal rate—with the unlikely assumption that taxpayers wouldn’t […]
More than 800 days since passing a budget as required by law—and still refusing to even make one public this year—Senate Democrats recently shared a copy of their phantom budget proposal with the Washington Post. Stunningly, they asserted a fifty-fifty split between tax hikes and spending cuts. They claimed a meager $2 trillion spending reduction […]
Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced his revised plan to increase the limit on the debt (this time by $2.4 trillion) from the current $14.3 trillion to $16.7 trillion—an amount sufficient to allow the Treasury to continue borrowing to finance our deficits through early 2013. This revised plan is essentially the same as his […]
CBO now projects that debt held by the public would exceed 100 percent GDP by 2021 under current policies (the alternative fiscal scenario). This is a 10 percentage point increase in debt relative to CBO’s projections of only one year ago. What’s more, debt held by the public is only a fraction of total federal […]
“Our nation’s total debt has now officially eclipsed the size of our entire economy… but the president continues his call for more failed government ‘investments.’ We need certainty and predictability, not more experiments in progressive economics.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today in response […]
“The new normal in Washington has become panic-driven 11th hour votes in which Members are told to fall into line before pandemonium ensues. This is no way to run the Congress or to run the government… No select committee or secret meeting is going to force the Congress to look in the mirror or to […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued a statement this evening following the announcement that a deal had been reached to raise the debt ceiling: “I am glad that this matter appears to be on its way to resolution prior to August 2nd. However, I have warned from the […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the current status of debt negotiations as the Senate awaits a vote on Majority Leader Reid’s debt limit proposal: “One thing every American should know: the level of spending cuts currently being discussed is only a small […]
“If the White House or the Democrat leadership in the Senate had taken the legally required budget process seriously at any point in the last year—if they had presented a single credible plan to cut spending—we wouldn’t be here right now in the 11th hour.” WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate […]
“Had the Senate adopted a budget in a timely manner this year, as the House of Representatives did, we would not be at an impasse on the debt limit increase at the 11th hour…[your] provision would provide a further excuse for avoiding a budget and increase the likelihood the Congressional Budget Act will be violated […]
“If the year had begun with a serious budget proposal from the president, we wouldn’t be in this mess right now… Senate Democrats, meanwhile, have refused to pass a budget in 820 days or even present one this year… Democrats defied the law and sound policy all year long and now we are paying the […]
“As feared, the Majority Leader’s bill does not achieve anything close to the promised savings. Given the late hour, rather than rush through poorly-vetted legislation to grant the president the largest debt ceiling increase in history, we should pursue a more reasonable approach: a short-term extension with real cuts during the immediate time period the […]
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today in response to President Obama’s repeated call for a “balanced” approach to dealing with the nation’s looming debt crisis: “The president has repeatedly called for a „balanced? approach to reducing our deficit. But there?s nothing „balanced? about an […]
“We can’t have an honest budget if we don’t have an honest dialogue. So I’m here today to speak the plain truth, as best I can, and to provide some concrete facts for consideration… Democrats have said—although no plan has ever been made public—that they could get behind a budget deal that reduces the deficit […]
“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 […]