09.19.23

Sen. Whitehouse Statement on House Republicans’ Budget Resolution

“It’s a farce,” said the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee

Washington, D.C.—Today, the Republicans on the House Budget Committee released the text of a budget resolution to be marked up tomorrow, September 20, 2023, just ten days before the end of the fiscal year. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement:

“In June, Congress passed a bipartisan budget agreement—negotiated under MAGA Republican threat of a U.S default—that set spending levels for the next two years. That agreement was supposed to provide certainty and stability so we wouldn’t lurch from a default crisis to a shutdown crisis. 

“With ten days left to fund the government before a shutdown, Republicans have reneged on the bipartisan agreement and released a deal-breaking budget that attacks essential government programs, undermines economic growth and national safety, and raises costs for households nationwide.

“Using the same old, tired, trickle-down playbook, they are seeking to balance the budget on the backs of regular folks, while delivering huge tax cuts for big businesses and billionaires.  Their massive tax giveaways are based on fantasy math — the arithmetic just doesn’t work.

“As our Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy provisions create good jobs around the country and reduce climate dangers, House Republicans try to eliminate them.  This obsession with the IRA’s climate provisions shows how Republicans are now little more than the glove covering the oily hand of the fossil fuel industry.

“This disastrous resolution would make our country less secure, less prosperous, and less competitive on the global stage. And with ten days to go as we’re barreling toward a government shutdown? It’s a farce.”