02.13.12

Sessions On President’s Budget: ‘One Of Most Spectacular Fiscal Cover-Ups In American History’

“The White House claims they have introduced a plan to achieve $4 trillion in deficit reduction… But these assertions rely on a calculated series of budget gimmicks. An honest analysis proves that the president’s plan achieves only $273 billion in total deficit reduction over ten years… Under this plan, we will accumulate $11 trillion in new gross debt… The vision the president has laid out today leads to a bigger government, a smaller middle class, and a painful debt crisis."

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today about President Obama’s FY 2013 budget submission:

“Today we are witnessing one of the most spectacular fiscal cover-ups in American history. The White House claims they have introduced a plan to achieve $4 trillion in deficit reduction, with $2.50 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax hikes. But these assertions rely on a calculated series of budget gimmicks. An honest analysis proves that the president’s plan achieves only $273 billion in total deficit reduction over ten years. Under this plan, we will accumulate $11 trillion in new gross debt—the $4 trillion reduction in deficit is nowhere to be found.

When the gimmicks are removed, spending even rises $1.5 trillion above current projections—$47 trillion in total. Annual spending will rise by 62 percent between 2011 and 2022. There are no real reforms and the new taxes are used to fund more wasteful Washington spending. So even with almost $2 trillion in job-crushing tax hikes, the president remains incapable of reducing the deficit—he just can’t resist the temptation to spend the money.

The core duty of the president of the United States is to protect the country from a clear and present danger. President Obama’s own fiscal commission co-chairs describe the debt threat facing America as ‘the most predictable economic crisis in its history.’ But President Obama’s budget plan accelerates the danger and, by refusing to offer entitlement reforms, puts Social Security and Medicare at imminent risk.

What makes matters even more atrocious is the use of accounting tricks to conceal these facts. For instance: the White House repeals $1.2 trillion in Budget Control Act cuts and doesn’t count it as new spending; they stop the planned cuts to Medicare providers without identifying any means to pay for it; they give themselves credit for discretionary caps that are already in law; and they pretend overseas spending will continue at higher levels so long-planned reductions in borrowing magically produce free money to spend somewhere else. The result is that the president has made no improvements to the debt course his own officials have described as unsustainable.

Meanwhile, the Senate’s Democrat majority have forfeited their own claim on continued leadership by scandalously refusing to offer a budget plan for the third straight year in the midst of a crisis.

By the end of his first term President Obama will have overseen four straight deficits in excess of a trillion dollars and the accumulation of $6.4 trillion in new gross debt. Yet 1.2 million fewer Americans are working today than when he took office. The vision the president has laid out today leads to a bigger government, a smaller middle class, and a painful debt crisis.

This is the final budget of the president’s term in office. It’s his last time to compose and promote a plan that will turn the ship of state away from the rocky shoals ahead. But rather than lay in a new course, he simply pretends that he has and hopes the passengers won’t know the difference.”