Says President Obama must get serious about reining in out-of-control spending
WASHINGTONU.S. Sen. John Cornyn a member of the Finance and Budget Committees released the following statement regarding President Obamas first meeting with Cabinet officials where he discussed reducing funding in each agencys budget.
President Obamas call for fiscal restraint is more than welcomed by me and my Republican colleagues in the United States Senate. Unfortunately it is 90 days late and trillions of dollars short. Since taking office President Obama and Congressional Democrats have gone on an unprecedented spending spree.
Between Inauguration Day and Tax Day Congress has spent more than we have for Iraq Afghanistan and in response to Hurricane Katrina combined. Now the President is asking his Cabinet to cut $100 million over the next 90 days? To put this in perspective the federal government currently spends $100 million every 13.5 minutes. The American people deserve more leadership and action on fiscal responsibility than this dog-and-pony show.
To date President Obama has targeted only one cabinet agency for significant spending cuts the Department of Defense. The cuts at the Pentagon reflect skewed budget priorities and will weaken our nations ability to counter future threats. Our troops deserve the very best equipment and resources to defend us especially at a time when we are fighting a global war on two fronts.
I hope the Obama administration will take real action to rein in its out-of-control spending. If the President is truly serious about the task at hand he should focus on cutting hundreds of billions of dollars instead of calling for a one-time reduction."
Background
President Obama during his first months in office has approved a record amount of spending as far as the eye can see and drastically grown the size of the federal government. First there was a $1.1 trillion so-called stimulus plan then a $410 billion omnibus bill and last but not least a $3.6 trillion federal budget that spends taxes and borrows too much.
During his time in Congress Sen. Cornyn has supported a number of bills to address fiscal responsibility.
- Stop Over-Spending (S.O.S.) Act. Sen. Cornyn co-sponsored this bill which would take important steps to control wasteful federal spending reduce the deficit and protect American taxpayers. Included in the legislation is a provision authored by Sen. Cornyn that would require a super-majority of the Senate or 60 votes to pass any legislation that increases income taxes on taxpayers.
- Reform Runaway Entitlement Spending. Sen. Cornyns entitlement reform amendment to the FY08 Budget Resolution would have reduced the debt by instructing the Senate Finance Committee to find approximately $34 billion in savings by eliminating wasteful spending.
- Social Security and Medicare Solvency Commission Act. He joined with Sen. Feinstein to introduce legislation that would create a permanent bipartisan entitlement commission to guarantee the long-term financial stability of Social Security and Medicare.
