Oversight
The $4 Trillion Gimmick: President’s ‘Framework’ To Reduce The Deficit By $4 Trillion Would Grow It $2.2 Trillion Beyond CBO Baseline
The American people deserve an honest, fact-based budget. Instead the president's deficit speech was the biggest gimmick yet. An analysis of the president's April 13 speech from the Republican staff of the Senate Budget Committee exposes the president's claim that he has a revised budget framework which will result in $4 trillion dollars in deficit reduction. The analysis reveals that the president's new framework is simply a rhetorically repackaged version of the budget he submitted on Februar… Continue Reading
10.04.11
Sessions Encourages Adoption Of Biennial Budget Reform
"I have long-supported [biennial budget] legislation and am eager to begin renewed work on this proposal… But the process reform will achieve little if we don't address the underlying problem: the ideology of big government. As long as Washington operates under the idea that the federal government is the first and best solution to all our problems, then our budget will always tend to be too large, too hard to manage, and place too heavy a burden on the economy." WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff… Continue Reading
09.27.11
Sessions Addresses Debate Over Disaster Funding In CR
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding spending offsets for disaster funding in the continuing resolution now under consideration in the Senate: "Throughout this year we have seen a stark contrast: Republicans in Congress have tried to responsibly manage the federal budget by reducing those expenditures which are not necessary and by better paying for those which are. Democrats in Congress have res… Continue Reading
09.27.11
Sessions Comments On Stopgap Funding Measure
WASHINGTON-U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the consideration of a short-term continuing resolution: "The current debate over yet another stopgap funding measure should be understood in one fundamental context: Senate Democrats have shunned their basic governing responsibility. They failed to follow regular order, produce appropriations bills, or pass a budget in 875 days." ###… Continue Reading
09.27.11
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
09.22.11
By The Numbers: Phony Cuts And Bogus Savings In President's New Fiscal Plan
"I'm proposing real, serious cuts in spending… All told, this plan cuts $2 in spending for every dollar in new revenues." - President Obama unveiling his deficit plan, September 19, 2011 $1.4 trillion Actual deficit reduction through 10 years under the president's plan, less than half the amount promised Zero Percent of deficit reduction that comes from spending cuts $1.6 trillion Net tax increase over 10 years $146 billion Spending … Continue Reading
09.21.11
SBC Analysis Of The President’s Mid-Session Review: Despite Promises, Deficit Plan Still Missing
By law, the administration is required to provide by July 16 an update of the president's proposed budget for the coming fiscal year. The update, which has come to be known as the Mid-Session Review (MSR), must provide revised estimates of receipts, outlays, budget authority, and budget deficits, taking into account information such as newly enacted laws, changes in the economic outlook, and changes to the February budget that "the President decides are necessary and appropriate based on current… Continue Reading
09.21.11
SBC Analysis: President’s Deficit Plan Fails To Cut Spending By One Penny
Today, the president finally provided a fiscal plan on paper that reflects his latest vision for the country. Relative to the administration's current policy baseline, the president claims his plan would increase the fiscal year 2012 deficit by $300 billion but reduce deficits over the next 10 years by $3.2 trillion. However, this claim is overstated by $1.8 trillion because of three gimmicks: (1) taking credit for savings from a reduction in war spending that all parties agree will occur, (2) … Continue Reading
09.21.11
Timeline Of Washington Democrats’ “Leadership” On The Deficit
"It's irresponsible, it's wrong, it's a failure of leadership, it's absent without leave… Can you imagine the greatest threat to our country, dwarfs any other problem this nation has… and the president's not providing any leadership? The commander-in-chief is absent from battle." - Ranking Member Jeff Sessions, interview on FOX News January 25, 2011 - In his State of the Union address, President Obama proposes freezing "annual domestic spending for the next five years." This freez… 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
08.29.11
By The Numbers: As Senate Democrats Ignore Budget, Debt Surges And Economy Suffers
800 ............. Days since the Democrat Senate has passed a budget resolution $3.2trillion .... Debt accumulated since a budget was last passed $7.3trillion .... Total federal spending over that time $439billion .... Net interest payments over that time 2024 ............. Projected year that Medicare will go bankrupt 2036 ............. Projected year that Social Security will go bankrupt 9.2 ................ Percent of workforce currently unemployed 29 ................. Months that unem… Continue Reading
08.29.11
Should Needed Spending Reductions Be “Balanced” With Tax Hikes?
Tax Hikes Won't Work, Aren't Needed To close this year's $1.4 trillion deficit through tax increases alone, individual and corporate rates would have to more than double overnight. Even if all of the income of those earning more than $1 million were confiscated at a 100 percent marginal rate-with the unlikely assumption that taxpayers wouldn't change their behavior-the federal deficit would still be at levels sharply above historic averages. Even if current tax rates were extended for ever… Continue Reading
08.29.11
Democrats’ Phantom Budget Cuts Less—And Taxes More—Than Advertised
More than 800 days since passing a budget as required by law-and still refusing to even make one public this year-Senate Democrats recently shared a copy of their phantom budget proposal with the Washington Post. Stunningly, they asserted a fifty-fifty split between tax hikes and spending cuts. They claimed a meager $2 trillion spending reduction and a burdensome $2 trillion tax hike. (By contrast, the House GOP budget cuts $6 trillion in excess spending without increasing taxes). But, properly … Continue Reading
08.29.11
Analysis Of The Revised Reid Proposal: Two And A Half Dollars In Debt Increase For Every One Dollar In Cuts
Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced his revised plan to increase the limit on the debt (this time by $2.4 trillion) from the current $14.3 trillion to $16.7 trillion-an amount sufficient to allow the Treasury to continue borrowing to finance our deficits through early 2013. This revised plan is essentially the same as his previous plan - it would allow the Treasury to continue borrowing through the election in November 2012, and it still falls short of matching the amount of … Continue Reading
