The Budget

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOOZMAN. Madam President, on Monday morning the country was presented with President Obama's budget proposal for the fiscal year. If you were only to listen to the President and his advisers, you would think this proposal is great for the Nation. The Acting Budget Director says the President's budget ``makes the right investments.'' The head of the President's National Economic Council used several sports metaphors to make the case that ``the President has very much stepped up to the plate,'' and the President himself said his budget makes ``some tough choices in order to put the country back on a more sustainable fiscal path.'' The reason they are so excited about this proposal is that they believe, in an election year, they have offered every ally something to woo their support. This budget proposal truly does try to be everything for everyone. The problem is that no one wins with it.

When you scratch the surface of this proposal, the shine quickly wears off. The deficit reduction claims the administration throws out to defend this proposal simply do not hold water. You cannot claim $1 trillion in cuts that Congress pushed through during the debt ceiling debate as new cuts, nor can you say with all honesty that $850 billion in war savings are real cuts. This money was never going to be spent in the first place.

When you get down to it, President Obama was never serious about his pledge to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. Like every budget this administration has proposed, this one was written with red ink. The deficit spending proposed in the President's fiscal year 2013 budget topped $1 trillion again. This is simply an unsustainable rate of spending.

On Monday, the President's team was doing a full-scale PR push for that budget. At one point during the rollout, a reporter asked the President's top economic aides what ever happened to that pledge the President had made to the American people. Gone from their answers was the tough talk about making difficult decisions and facing challenges we have long neglected. Instead, his advisers were left to pull out the old standby excuse that the President's team simply did not realize how bad the economy actually was when they first took over.

Clearly, they still do not realize it now. Not only does the President's budget ignore the very real disarray our fiscal house is in, it makes it worse. Since President Obama took office, our national debt has shot up 42 percent. Under President Obama's watch, the national debt has jumped to a jaw-dropping $15.1 trillion. This is the fourth year in a row that the budget would run a deficit above $1.29 trillion. When it comes to fiscal responsibility, this is not a record of which to be proud.

America deserves better than a collection of tax hikes, phony savings, and additional debt. The President's budget proposal is bad for seniors, as it takes no steps to protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security. It will hurt the chances of an economic recovery through tax hikes and will add $11 trillion more to our already staggering national debt in a 10-year period. We cannot continue to keep going down this road. America's fiscal health is at stake. We have to stop spending more than we take in. If not, we risk going in the direction of Greece, Portugal, Italy, and other European countries that have spent their way to the brink of default.

As we head into the final year of President Obama's first term, we have already witnessed the most rapid increase in debt under any U.S. President. With our national debt already the size of our entire economy, the President has proposed a budget that calls for hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending. If we follow through with this budget, deficit spending would exceed $600 billion every year but one over the next decade. Our national debt would grow to $18.7 trillion.

President Obama would like you to believe that if we simply raise taxes we can solve all of our fiscal problems. A recent CBO report shows that spending is the primary cause of our fiscal crisis and supports spending cuts rather than tax increases to reverse the trend. But the President is holding steadfast to his desire to raise taxes as an answer. The President's failed policy of borrowing, spending, and taxing is just what the CBO is warning us to avoid. It has not worked in the past, and it will not work in the future.

Washington does not have a revenue problem, Washington has a spending problem. The fact that President Obama still believes we can tax our way out of the problem reveals a huge disconnect with the American people. When it comes to our country's budget, Americans have a right to expect accountability, honesty, and responsibility. This proposal has none of those.

If President Obama refuses to acknowledge and address the very real economic crisis facing our country, let's show America that we will. We can do so by rejecting the White House's proposal and passing a responsible budget that puts our Nation back on a fiscally responsible path.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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