Cut Spending, Reduce the Deficit, Balance the Budget

For the sixth year in a row, President Obama has handed Congress a tax-and-spend, big-government budget that never balances. It ignores our growing national debt and punishes hard-working taxpayers.

House Republicans have proposed a budget that cuts spending, reduces the deficit, balances the budget, and supports the men and women in uniform who are defending our nation. The budget repeals ObamaCare, ends the failed health law’s $700 billion raid on Medicare, and keeps Medicare solvent.

Under President Obama’s failed policies, both the debt and deficit have doubled. No family, no community, no country can continue that kind of excessive spending. It is the road to bankruptcy.

A fundamental responsibility of the government is to set budgets and stick to them. This is necessary not only to keep the country running, but also to prevent it from running into the ground. It is time for the President to stop spending money the government doesn’t have and start working with Republicans to save America’s future.

The FY16 Budget Resolution, A Balanced Budget for a Stronger America, would:

• Balance in less than ten years – in contrast to the President whose budget never balances
• Cut $5.5 Trillion in spending – higher than any previous House Budget proposal
• Support a healthier economy today and greater economic opportunity for tomorrow 
• Repeal Obamacare and start over
• Boost defense spending above the president’s levels throughout
• Eliminate “double dipping” of Disability Insurance and Unemployment Insurance and establish a plan to strengthen the regular Social Security Trust Fund
• Save and strengthen Medicare, ending the $700 billion Obamacare raid on Medicare

I also voted for the Republican Study Budget, which would have cut spending by $7.1 trillion over 10 years.

In contrast, the President’s FY16 Budget proposal would:

Increase Taxes

• Despite $2.1 trillion in new tax increases, President Obama’s budget never balances—ever.
• Major proposed tax increases include higher levies on savings and investment, small businesses, and increases in the costs of hiring workers.
• These tax hikes would stunt the economic growth needed to get Americans back to work, and come on top of $1.7 trillion in tax hikes already imposed by this Administration.

Increase Spending

• The President’s budget increases annually-appropriated spending for next year by $74 billion relative to current law. In over 5 years, he would increase such spending by $322 billion.
• Next year alone, the President’s budget would grow total federal spending by $259 billion, or 7 percent.
• Total spending will increase by 65 percent ($2.4 trillion) in 10 years under the President’s plan.

Cause Interest Costs to Skyrocket

• President Obama’s plan more than triples interest costs, which remain the fastest growing item in the budget.
• Interest on the debt this year would be $229 billion, but would rise to $785 billion in 2025 under his plan.
• At the end of President’s plan, annual interest costs would be larger than his proposed spending for national defense, Medicaid or the combined total of all non-defense agency spending.

Increase the Debt

• Since 2009, we’ve added $7.5 trillion to the debt and spent $21.1 trillion.
• The President’s budget plan would add $8.5 trillion to the debt.
• Cumulative deficits would amount to $5.7 trillion, and gross debt would climb to $26.3 trillion in 2025.