By Congressman Michael McCaul Texas 10th Congressional District
Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. On Feb. 23 2009 in the East Room of the White House at the opening of his Fiscal Responsibility Summit
President Obama pledged to cut the deficit we inherited in half by the end of my first term in office. The reality is he has done exactly the opposite; he has more than doubled the annual budget deficit he inherited.
Days ago President Obama released a proposed budget of $3.8 trillion for the next fiscal year touting it as the path to prosperity. The promise of this completely irresponsible budget proposal is as unrealistic and intentionally fabricated as the promise to cut our deficits in half by the end of his first term.
Clearly we do not seem to have learned our lesson to not believe anything this Administration tells us when it comes to controlling spending. What the President wont be touting this week is that total Federal revenues for fiscal 2013 are projected to be approximately $2.5 Trillion.
Now I am not a mathematician but spending $1.3 Trillion more than we have in revenues is fiscal irresponsibility on a scale we have never seen before it is truly a national crisis and unless we want to become Greece teetering on the brink of national financial ruin we have to stop spending money we do not have.
President Obamas budget proposal also irresponsibly raises taxes on families and small businesses by $1.9 Trillion in order to pay for even more spending. His plan would dig our $15
Trillion financial hole even deeper by almost another trillion dollars next fiscal year.
The presidents budget ignores the major driver of spending: our entitlement programs. We need to reform them for future generations to save them from bankruptcy. The presidents incomprehensible approach is detrimental to job creation and an insult to millions of Americans who have urged Washington to stop piling the debt onto their children and grandchildren.
In addition my colleagues on the other side of the Capitol in the Senate have not offered a budget in more than 1000 days.
Let me put that another way the largest economy in the world the US has been operating without a budget for almost 3 years. This is unprecedented.
The Democrats are out of ideas and excuses. Not only does the Democrat controlled Senate not plan to offer a budget again this year they wont even take up the budget passed by the House of Representatives where we have done our work and passed a responsible budget that begins to tackle our out of control spending.
This President and this Democrat controlled Senate are not serious people when it comes to tackling our fiscal problems they have proven this again and again by their lack of leadership on reigning in spending and have actually exacerbated Americas fiscal problems. They have made things worse not better and they need to be held accountable.
American families deserve better than more broken promises and failed leadership from President Obama and the Democrats in Congress. I will continue to work alongside my fellow Republicans to get this irresponsible budget under control.
Please know I am fighting every day to return sanity to our Federal budget and really put this country back on a path to prosperity.
