Senator Lamar Alexander on Tuesday said President Obama’s proposed 10-year budget for 2015 “never balances” and does not do enough to address “runaway entitlement spending” that is driving the federal government’s debt, which is more than $17 trillion.
“President Obama’s proposed 10-year budget never balances and adds about $8 trillion to the federal debt over the next 10 years,” Senator Alexander said. “The president also failed to include a more accurate measure of inflation for adjusting entitlement spending and tax rates, a simple, fair way to fix the federal debt that he already proposed last year.
“We need to do more to fix the federal government’s more than $17 trillion debt by enacting plans like the Fiscal Sustainability Act I’ve introduced with Senator Corker, which would reduce the growth in runaway entitlement spending by nearly $1 trillion over 10 years. If we don’t make tough decisions now, we’ll have let America slip from the hands of the ‘greatest generation’ to the ‘debt-paying generation’ with nothing to show for it but the bill.”
In last year’s 10-year budget, the president proposed what is known as the chained Consumer Price Index, which Senator Alexander said is a more accurate way to calculate inflation for entitlement spending and tax rates. The Fiscal Sustainability Act Alexander introduced with Senator Bob Corker includes chained CPI and other reforms to reduce the growth in mandatory entitlement spending by nearly $1 trillion over the next 10 years.
Senator Bob Corker said, “I think everyone understands that this budget proposal is not a serious document and will have no effect on policy. Unfortunately, the administration continues to be unwilling to deal with the critical issue of putting our fiscal house in order.”
Congressman Chuck Fleischmann said, “Unfortunately, this budget proposal is just more of the same from President Obama. It further maintains the status quo that is simply not good enough for the American people. His budget weakens our national defense, does nothing to preserve or reform mandatory spending programs, and increases the tax burden on the American people with the sole intent of allowing Washington to spend more.
"With three years left in his presidency, this budget is just further proof that the President has no desire to address the root of our fiscal challenges.”