Oversight
Sessions: Budget Misrepresentations ‘Deal A Severe Blow To President Obama’s Credibility’
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued a statement today following Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's testimony before the Committee: "The Administration continues to persist in the duplicity that this budget cuts spending when it increases spending by $1.5 trillion over the levels in current law. Even giving them credit for reducing war costs-all of which were borrowed-does not change the mathematical fact that spending is going… Continue Reading
02.16.12
Sessions Delivers Opening Statement At Budget Hearing With Treasury Secretary Geithner
"Secretary Geithner… you are a capable and loyal member of the administration. But, more fundamentally, you are a servant of the American people. You have an opportunity today to help us understand both the dangerous unsustainability of our fiscal path, and the depth of change needed to right our course… History will judge our conversation today. Do you believe that the president's budget provides the solution to our fiscal problems? Do you believe that $11.2 trillion in new fede… Continue Reading
02.15.12
The Obama 2013 Budget: A Summary And Analysis
The president's 2013 budget claims it will result in declining deficits from $1.3 trillion in 2012 (8.5 percent of GDP) to $0.9 trillion in 2013 (5.5 percent of GDP) to no less than $0.6 trillion in any subsequent year. The budget fails the pledge the president made on February 23, 2009 at his Fiscal Responsibility Summit: And that's why today I'm pledging to cut the deficit we inherited in half by the end of my first term in office.[1] But that is not happening in 2012-the last year of this … Continue Reading
02.14.12
Sessions To WH Budget Chief: You Work For The American People, Not The Obama Campaign
"Given the gravity of our fiscal crisis-and Mr. Zeints' obligation to present honest facts to the public-I asked him whether, if he was shown to be wrong, he would resign. I will soon be sending him a letter expressing my concerns from today's hearing and pressing for a straightforward answer to a straightforward question. Mr. Zeints must remember-he works for the American people, not the Obama campaign. And the American people have a right to know the truth." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessio… Continue Reading
02.13.12
Honest Accounting Reveals President’s Budget Makes No Alteration To Disastrous Debt Course
The president claims that his fiscal plan will reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years, including the previously enacted $1 trillion Budget Control Act cuts that are part of current law. An honest analysis reveals, however, that the president's budget would only reduce the deficit by about $300 billion in comparison to what was agreed to in the Budget Control Act last August. In other words, the White House has utterly failed to meet even the minimum target they have identified … Continue Reading
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… Continue Reading
02.13.12
HBC And SBC Republican Summary Of President's FY2013 Budget
The President has not merely ducked from our fiscal and economic challenges, but-with his fourth straight budget flop-he has advanced policies that dangerously accelerate the crisis before us. His gimmick-filled budget fails to reduce the fast-rising debt, permanently entrenches unsustainable levels of government spending, and erects new barriers to upward mobility. His plan stifles economic growth, threatens the health and retirement security of millions of Americans, and commits the next gener… Continue Reading
02.10.12
Gimmicks The President May Use To Claim Trillions In Phony Budget Savings
When the president releases his budget on Monday, February 13th, he will most likely claim some large amount of "savings" in an effort to create the appearance that his administration is actually committed to cutting spending. However, we know from gimmicks in the president's past proposals that he may claim to "save" $3 trillion with no savings at all (which are properly defined as spending cuts). The only deficit reduction would stem from tax hikes that sustain wasteful spending. Here is how … Continue Reading
02.09.12
Obama’s Budget Gimmicks Produce Phony Deficit Claims
President Obama has submitted three annual budgets. The reestimates of those budgets by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) demonstrate they were based on unrealistic baselines and faulty estimates of budgetary effects of the president's proposed policies. In fact, CBO's analyses show that the president has, on average, understated his 10-year deficits by almost 20 percent. The Administration's repeated under-estimation of the president's budget deficits can be attributed to three factors: … Continue Reading
02.07.12
Sessions Delivers Opening Remarks At Bernanke Hearing
"I am glad Chairman Conrad will be marking-up a budget in committee. But the mark-up will be a doomed exercise if your own majority leader decrees that the budget process will be shut down. Majority Leader Reid has effectively declared both a Senate Democrat budget - and the President's budget - dead on arrival." "While we can't predict the day a debt crisis will erupt - or what unknown event might set it off - we do know we are on a collision course…Yet Majority Leader Reid has closed t… Continue Reading
02.07.12
Obama's FY2012 Budget: A Failure of Leadership
A Detailed Summary and Analysis of President Obama's FY 2012 Budget… Continue Reading
02.03.12
Sessions Responds To Reid’s Breaking Announcement On Democrat Budget Plan
"By refusing to lay out a budget plan for public examination-a fact no one can deny-the Democrat Senate has forfeited the high privilege to lead this chamber." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today as Majority Leader Reid announced that, for the third year in a row, he would not bring a budget plan up for public debate and amendment on the Senate floor: "It's been more than 1,000 days since Senate Dem… Continue Reading
02.01.12
Sessions, Snowe Explain Need For Honest Budget Act: ‘Washington Uses A Different Set Of Rules’
"Americans have a right to expect honesty, transparency, and accountability from their elected officials. They have a right to know that a cut is a cut, an increase is an increase, and that a price tag is accurate." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, and U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, issued the following joint statement today regarding the Honest Budget Act: … Continue Reading
01.31.12
CBO’s Outlook Drastically Understates Nation’s Debt Path
The Congressional Budget Office baseline budget outlook dramatically understates-by nearly $6 trillion-the deficit and debt path that the nation is on. The agency's current law outlook shows deficits declining from $1.3 trillion last year to $1.1 trillion this year, and dropping further until fiscal year 2018, when it starts rising again. Using a realistic baseline, the nation will accumulate $9.8 trillion in public debt and $11.4 trillion in gross debt over the next ten years. The only reductio… Continue Reading
01.31.12
Sessions On Baseline: Spending To Increase Fifty-Three Percent, Debt By $11.4 Trillion
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the release of the latest CBO Budget and Economic Outlook and the Committee's estimation that our nation's actual debt path would produce $5.7 trillion in debt above the CBO baseline: "An honest analysis tells us that spending is set to increase by 53 percent over the next ten years, producing an estimated $11.4 trillion in new gross debt. This is dangerously … Continue Reading
01.26.12
Sessions On President’s Debt Increase: Policies Growing Gov’t, Shrinking Middle Class
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today ahead of the vote on the resolution of disapproval on President Obama's requested debt limit increase: "The president's request to borrow another $1.2 trillion dollars-all of which will be spent and gone within the next twelve months-brings America closer to what his fiscal commission co-chairs called 'the most predictable economic crisis in its history.' After last … Continue Reading
01.26.12
Sessions Delivers Opening Statement At First Budget Hearing Of 2012
"The president says he wants an 'America built to last.' But we can't do that with borrowed money. Debt is not an asset, spending is not a virtue, and borrowing is not a future." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, delivered an opening statement today at a Committee hearing on the U.S. economic outlook. Sessions' remarks, as prepared, follow: "We are now entering the budget season for Fiscal Year 2013. Producing a budget for public… Continue Reading
01.24.12
Sessions Responds To State Of The Union Address
WASHINGTON-In response to President Obama's State of the Union address, U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement tonight: "It was stunning how thoroughly and deliberately the president ignored the ominous threat hanging over this country-our surging $15 trillion debt. I stand ready, eager, and willing to work with the president on a real, honest agenda of government reform, but unfortunately, tonight's speech was more campaign… Continue Reading
01.23.12
Sessions And Ryan Ahead Of Day 1,000: Senate Democrats ‘Abandoned Their Duty’
"Senate Democrats abandoned their official duty to prioritize Americans' hard-earned tax dollars and tackle our nation's most pressing economic challenges-dealing a painful blow to fiscal progress that may be felt for some time." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chairman of the House Budget Committee, released the following joint statement today ahead of the 1,000th day since Senate Democrats have last offered a… Continue Reading
01.20.12
War Savings Offset Still A Gimmick
News reports appear to confirm that, as laid out in the State of the Union address, President Obama's budget will propose using caps on war spending as a gimmick to either "offset" new spending or reduce the deficit. This offset is an accounting trick because it claims artificial savings from money that would never be spent in the first place. The Congressional Budget Office's August 2011 baseline assumed that war spending (overseas contingency operations or "OCO" spending) would grow every y… Continue Reading
