Madam Chairwoman:
I’m glad we’re here to finally markup a budget resolution. It’s been four years since the Senate has passed a budget.
But we are about to debate a budget resolution and the President hasn’t even proposed his budget for consideration. This committee hasn’t heard from a single administration witness in preparation for considering a budget.
House Budget Chairman Ryan has been able to present a budget blueprint. I presume Chairman Murray will shortly present a budget blueprint.
It’s quite remarkable that the President of the United States has yet to submit a budget, even though the law required it by February 4th.
It was announced yesterday that the President’s budget will be released the week of April 8th – two months overdue. This will be the first time a President has failed to submit a budget until after the House and Senate have acted.
Once again on fiscal issues the President is leading from behind, and he’s set a new low for fiscal responsibility.
It’s time to look at the facts. During the past four years, the gross federal debt has increased by $6 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office baseline indicates that the debt will increase by another $9 trillion over the next ten years. The gross debt stands at more than $16 trillion – larger than the U.S. economy.
Publicly held debt equals 76 percent of the economy. It’s approaching levels where economists agree – deficits and debt will cause slower economic growth.
Yet, the President and the Senate Majority seem more fixated on growing the government and punishing the so-called wealthy under the guise of fairness and balance. There is no effort to reduce deficits, reduce spending, balance the budget or grow the economy.
The overriding belief is that economic growth will only come through private wealth confiscation that supports an even bigger, more intrusive government. The problem is, raising taxes only extracts private capital from job creators and small businesses.
And it’s spent wastefully by an inefficient and bloated bureaucracy. The higher taxes are robbing the unemployed of needed jobs. The government it supports does not create economic growth or self-sustaining jobs.
Press reports indicate that the budget resolution to be presented by the Budget Chairman will increase taxes by $1 trillion. They claim it’ll come from closing corporate and individual loopholes.
As someone who has closed billions of dollars in corporate and individual loopholes, I can emphatically tell you there is nowhere near $1 trillion in loopholes. The truth is, you can’t raise taxes by $1 trillion without hitting the middle class and targeting popular deductions such as mortgage interest.
I would also like to know when tax reform became a code word for tax increases. This certainly was not how we achieved bipartisan tax reform in 1986. Any way you spin it, a $1 trillion tax increase will affect the middle class and harm the economy and job growth.
I’ll be interested to hear how the Chairman proposes to raise these new taxes. A $1 trillion tax hike while economic growth is slow and unemployment remains near eight percent is reckless at best.
Even worse, the tax increases the Chairman proposes will not be used to balance the budget. They’re used to support even higher spending.
This is the quintessential tax and spend budget. Which unfortunately, is also business as usual.
If you hear the term “pro-growth” applied to this budget, the only thing it can mean is growth in the size and scope of the federal government, and growth in the national debt.
When you hear the term “balanced,” the majority is not speaking of a balanced budget. Their understanding of balance is higher taxes and higher spending. But, we know spending is the problem.
Under current law, revenues next year will equal about 18 percent of GDP, the historical average, and go even higher. Spending on the other hand, is already above the historical average of 21 percent of GDP, and will also go higher. The problem is not that people are under-taxed. The problem is Washington over-spends.
The budget to be presented by the Majority will not tackle runaway spending. It will raise taxes, but not to balance the budget, but to spend even more. This budget will grow the government, harm economic growth and increase the debt.
After four years of contemplating a budget resolution, I would have expected a more fiscally responsible and realistic budget.