Decades of reckless spending havebrought us to a defining moment for our nation’s fiscal future. NTU urges allSenators to take this opportunity to support only those budget proposals that includesubstantial reductions to our spending commitments and achieve balanced budgetsin the future. To varying degrees, H. Con. Res. 34 introduced by Rep. Ryan(R-WI), S. Con. Res. 19 introduced by Sen.Toomey (R-PA), and S. Con. Res. 20 by Sen. Paul (R-KY) achieve these goals whilePresident Obama’s budget outline utterly fails to meet those important tests.
In2011, our overspending problem will have grown to roughly $1.6 trillion, anamount that is roughly the size of the entire inflation-adjusted federal budgetof 1982. Perhaps even more disturbing, Congress and Presidents alike have notonly failed to grapple with the long-term challenges we face, but haveconsistently added to their size and scope.
NTUcontinues to believe that the best, most comprehensive approach to our budgetincludes responsible trimming of spending in the near term to achieve balance andserious, durable reforms to exploding entitlement programs like Medicare,Medicaid, and Social Security to maintain it. None of these budget proposals isperfect when evaluated through that rubric, but the Ryan, Toomey, and Paulplans are worthy of support as important steps in the right direction for ourfundamentally unsustainable fiscal policy. They will provide a head start on thedifficult work ahead of us while President Obama’s proposal continues ourseemingly endless march in the wrong direction.
Accordingly, “YES” votes on the Ryan,Toomey, and Paul budgets and a “NO” vote on the Obama budget will be consideredthe pro-taxpayer positions in our annual Rating of Congress.
If you have any questions, please contact NTU Vice President of Government Affairs Andrew Moylan at(703) 683-5700******************************************