08.16.11

Sessions: Reid Bill Achieves Only One-Third Of Promised Cuts

“As feared, the Majority Leader's bill does not achieve anything close to the promised savings. Given the late hour, rather than rush through poorly-vetted legislation to grant the president the largest debt ceiling increase in history, we should pursue a more reasonable approach: a short-term extension with real cuts during the immediate time period the extension covers… Then, using the extra time, Congress should pursue a binding framework like Cut, Cap, and Balance… We should try the one thing that has been refused from the beginning: open hearings, regular order, and real legislative process.”

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today about the debt-limit increase plan drafted by Majority Leader Harry Reid:

“I have warned from the beginning that if we skirted legislative process in favor of closed-door White House meetings, we would find ourselves in the 11th hour with gimmick-filled legislation being rushed through to a panic-driven vote. This is not responsible governance from Washington's Democrat majority.

As feared, the Majority Leader's bill does not achieve anything close to the promised savings. Spending next year would be only $3 billion less than the amount enacted for 2011. Far from the $2.7 trillion in cuts claimed, the true spending cuts in this proposal are closer to $1 trillion over ten years—roughly a third of what was advertised—while asking for a nearly $3 trillion increase in the debt limit. This falls far short of the idea that a dollar in cuts should accompany every dollar increase in the debt limit.

Sen. Reid’s proposal is also structured in a way that is clearly designed to further degrade the legally-required budget process. Indeed, under this proposal, he will have even less reason to follow requirement next year than this year. He hopes to protect his majority from having to adopt a budget plan—as they have failed to do for 818 days.

Given the late hour, rather than rush through poorly-vetted legislation to grant the president the largest debt ceiling increase in history, we should pursue a more reasonable approach: a short-term extension with real cuts during the immediate time period the extension covers—not ten years down the road. Then, using the extra time, Congress should pursue a binding framework like Cut, Cap, and Balance to bring the gimmicks to an end. We should try the one thing that has been refused to do from the beginning: open hearings, regular order, and real legislative process.”

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