Oversight
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
08.25.11
Fact Sheet On CBO Long-Term Outlook: Worsening Debt Imperils Economy
CBO now projects that debt held by the public would exceed 100 percent GDP by 2021 under current policies (the alternative fiscal scenario). This is a 10 percentage point increase in debt relative to CBO's projections of only one year ago. What's more, debt held by the public is only a fraction of total federal debt, which is nearly 100 percent of GDP already. Economists Rogoff and Reinhart have found gross debt levels above 90 percent of GDP slow economic growth by around one percentage poin… Continue Reading
08.16.11
Issue 1a&b: Sequesters: Now And Then
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
