Ranking Member Press
Sessions Asks: What Did Sebelius Know About Health Program’s Unsustainable Cost?
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, joined a bicameral group of lawmakers in sending a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, about the CLASS Act, a long-term care program created as part of the president's healthcare bill. The letter calls on Sebelius to explain her agency's plan for the implementation of CLASS, and to answer questions about when she first became aware of internal HHS concerns… Continue Reading
09.20.11
At Budget Hearing, Sessions Details “Astounding” Inaccuracies In President’s Plan
"The White House says that the president's plan achieves $3.2 trillion in deficit reduction. The actual deficit reduction is only $1.4 trillion… The White House asserts $2 in cuts for every $1 in tax hikes… In reality, under the president's plan, the net change in spending is an increase… This has become the pattern: the president understates the depth of our fiscal danger, then overstates the scope of his fiscal plans." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Me… Continue Reading
09.19.11
Sessions: No Net Spending Cuts In President’s Deficit Plan
"The White House is trying to be clever at the expense of being credible… [they claim] the president's plan is $2 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax hikes. But in truth, the president's deficit reduction comes entirely from tax hikes. Total federal spending, including the stimulus, will increase under the president's plan, not decrease. On balance, there is not a penny of net spending that is cut… This plan is gimmick piled upon gimmick, adding up to little more than a tax hike c… Continue Reading
09.16.11
Sessions Remarks On President’s Stimulus Plan And Discredited Keynesian Predictions
"Now, in the grips of crisis, we are told the president has a new plan to revive the economy. We received a proposal on Monday, with no fiscal details, that just offers more of the same. It calls for a sudden increase in the deficit with a promise to pay for it at a later date… Why should we continue to trust the 'masters of the universe' who tell us that we can spend and borrow our way to prosperity? They've been wrong from the beginning… Indeed, [committee witness] Dr. Zandi, who… Continue Reading
09.14.11
Sessions To White House: Stimulus Plan Sent To Congress Missing Key Information
"When we received a copy of the legislation yesterday, we were expecting the Office of Management and Budget-which enjoys a five hundred person staff-to provide a precise and detailed estimate of the fiscal impact of the president's proposal. But no such information was provided… Perhaps even more troubling, however, is that despite the emphatic promise that we would learn yesterday how the bill would be offset, this information is missing too." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sess… Continue Reading
09.12.11
Sessions On President's Upcoming Address: A Speech Is No Substitute For A Budget
"Today's dismal jobs numbers further demonstrate that the country needs much more than a speech-it needs the confidence and certainty that only a concrete fiscal plan can provide." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the president's upcoming address to Congress in light of today's figures showing that no net jobs were added last month, and in light of the president's submission of budget revisio… Continue Reading
09.12.11
Addressing Concerns With 'Paid For' Promise, Sessions Says President Must Submit Debt and Job Plans Together
"The president?s intention to release the details of his spending and deficit reduction plans separately, over a series of weeks, suggests he does not comprehend the debilitating impact America?s debt is having on the economy right now, and casts additional doubt on the president?s sincerity in paying for his latest „stimulus? program." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, remarked today on the president's plan to release separately his… Continue Reading
09.12.11
Sessions Warns That President's New Borrowing Will Weaken Economy
"The president's plan makes a mockery of the recent debt limit deal. That agreement cut $7 billion in appropriations next year but the president now wants to borrow hundreds of billions more to finance a second stimulus package… Saying that something is 'paid for' isn't enough… Borrowing even more to spend immediately in exchange for vague promises of distant future cuts means that we are digging ourselves into a deeper fiscal hole and moving quickly in the wrong direction." WASHI… Continue Reading
08.16.11
Sessions: President Fostering Uncertainty, Unpredictability In Economy
"Our nation's total debt has now officially eclipsed the size of our entire economy… but the president continues his call for more failed government 'investments.' We need certainty and predictability, not more experiments in progressive economics." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today in response to the July employment report, which showed the unemployment rate nearly unchanged at 9.1 percent: "Un… Continue Reading
08.16.11
Sessions Opposes Debt Limit Bill: 'Answer is More Accountability, Not Less'
"The new normal in Washington has become panic-driven 11th hour votes in which Members are told to fall into line before pandemonium ensues. This is no way to run the Congress or to run the government… No select committee or secret meeting is going to force the Congress to look in the mirror or to look the American people in the eye." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, made the following statement today after voting in opposition to … Continue Reading
08.16.11
Sessions Reacts To Announcement Of Late-Hour Debt Limit Deal
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued a statement this evening following the announcement that a deal had been reached to raise the debt ceiling: "I am glad that this matter appears to be on its way to resolution prior to August 2nd. However, I have warned from the very beginning that by shunning our legislative process and Senate heritage we would find ourselves in the 11th hour forced to vote on a bill with little or no time for meani… Continue Reading
08.16.11
Sessions Comments On Possibility Of Last-Minute Debt Deal
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the current status of debt negotiations as the Senate awaits a vote on Majority Leader Reid's debt limit proposal: "One thing every American should know: the level of spending cuts currently being discussed is only a small step. It will not change the debt course we are on. The Republican House has passed several measures, including a historic budget, which wo… Continue Reading
08.16.11
Sessions Remarks On Senate Democrats’ Rejection Of House Debt Limit Extension
"If the White House or the Democrat leadership in the Senate had taken the legally required budget process seriously at any point in the last year-if they had presented a single credible plan to cut spending-we wouldn't be here right now in the 11th hour." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following comment today after voting against tabling the House-passed Budget Control Act. The motion to table was agreed to: "I am disappoin… Continue Reading
08.16.11
Budget Committee Republicans Warn Reid Against Attempting End-Run Around Budget Law In Debt Bill
"Had the Senate adopted a budget in a timely manner this year, as the House of Representatives did, we would not be at an impasse on the debt limit increase at the 11th hour…[your] provision would provide a further excuse for avoiding a budget and increase the likelihood the Congressional Budget Act will be violated for a third straight year. This is an abrogation of the responsibilities of the Senate Committee on the Budget and the U.S. Senate." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)… Continue Reading
08.16.11
Sessions: Reid's Accounting Hoax And Dem Leaders' Budget Law Defiance Has Brought Us To 11th Hour
"If the year had begun with a serious budget proposal from the president, we wouldn't be in this mess right now… Senate Democrats, meanwhile, have refused to pass a budget in 820 days or even present one this year… Democrats defied the law and sound policy all year long and now we are paying the price… There have been suggestions that Republicans are simply unwilling to budge from their position. But the Boehner proposal represents only a small portion of the cuts Republica… Continue Reading
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 tr… Continue Reading
08.16.11
Sessions On The President's Call For A 'Balanced' Approach On Debt
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today in response to President Obama's repeated call for a "balanced" approach to dealing with the nation's looming debt crisis: "The president has repeatedly called for a „balanced? approach to reducing our deficit. But there?s nothing „balanced? about an approach that couples weak spending cuts with dramatic tax hikes. There?s nothing balanced about the presiden… Continue Reading
08.16.11
Sessions Responds To Democrat Deficit Myths, Calls For Honesty In Facing Debt Crisis
"We can't have an honest budget if we don't have an honest dialogue. So I'm here today to speak the plain truth, as best I can, and to provide some concrete facts for consideration… Democrats have said-although no plan has ever been made public-that they could get behind a budget deal that reduces the deficit $4 trillion over the next ten years, half of it comprised of spending cuts. I'm skeptical that even this minimal level of spending cuts would occur. But even if it did, it's not eve… Continue Reading
08.16.11
Sessions Comments On Reid’s Debt Plan
"Majority Leader Reid's plan dramatically overstates the spending restraint it achieves, using Washington math that has been the cause of our surging debt… This proposal would mean that total spending over ten years would still be increased, not reduced. I am not impressed." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today in response to the debt-limit increase proposal that Majority Leader Harry Reid introduce… Continue Reading
08.16.11
Following Cut, Cap, Balance Vote, Sessions Challenges Democrat Leaders To Finally Present Plan Of Their Own
"It is likely the president and the Democrat Senate, who control the levers of power in Washington, will continue to resist the spending cuts we need to restore fiscal balance… It's time for those who oppose Cut, Cap, and Balance to bring forward their alternative. The media, the public, and lawmakers should demand it." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today after a vote on tabling the motion to proce… Continue Reading
