President's budget plan devastating
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March 8, 2014 |
By U.S. Congressman Raul Labrador
This week, the President unveiled his budget for
Fiscal Year 2015, a budget that - if passed –
would devastate our economy and add a crushing
debt burden onto our children.
The President’s plan would raise taxes by $1.7
trillion, increase spending by $791 billion, and
add $8.3 trillion to the debt over the next 10
years. By 2024, the national debt would be $25
trillion – or about $200,000 per American
taxpayer. Quite simply, the President’s budget
spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too
much. We can do better.
In 2011, I was an original cosponsor of the
“Cut, Cap, and Balance” plan, which passed the
House in a bipartisan vote. This plan would have
capped federal spending, cut spending gradually
over the next 10 years, and passed a
Constitutional amendment requiring a balanced
budget. However, Senate Democrats wouldn’t
consider our plan. They wouldn’t even bring it
up for a vote. What we ended up with was the
“sequester” – a compromise that, despite some
initial problems, did start putting the
government on a fiscally-sustainable path.
Since the “sequester” was signed into law, the
budget deficit has been cut in half and the
economy has grown at a faster pace. The stock
market is at an all-time high. And yet, the
President wants to gut all that progress.
Instead of working with Republicans to expand
the policies that have caused gradual progress
since 2011, he wants to go back to the “Big
Government” policies of his first two years –
policies that devastated our economy.
Where is the President’s plan to create jobs,
grow our economy, and balance the budget? Where
is his plan to reform the tax code, increase
domestic energy production, prevent our health
care system from going bankrupt, and save
Medicare and Social Security? What exactly does
President Obama want to accomplish during his
next three years in office? The budget he
released this week provides no answer. And
that’s because there isn’t one.
America is experiencing a major debt crisis. As
we’ve seen in places from Detroit to Greece, the
rapid growth of government spending and debt is
unsustainable and eventually leads to economic
ruin. Now is the time for both parties to come
together to put America on a fiscally-healthy
path.
I will continue to advocate for the policies
that have helped America since 2011, and I will
continue to oppose the policies that will harm
that progress – whether that’s the President’s
budget, the “omnibus” spending bill that passed
Congress in January, or other policies – even
those supported by Republicans – that would
expand government at the expense of the private
sector.
The President’s “Big Government” budget is
simply “more of the same.” To grow our economy
and preserve the American Dream, we need more
freedom, more opportunity, and more personal
responsibility. That is the change we need. And
that is the change I will keep fighting for. |
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