President Obama is making it clear that fixing the debt crisis takes a backseat to his own spend-and-tax priorities.  His budget for fiscal year 2013, submitted to Congress last week, rehashes the same misguided policies that have worsened the economy since he took office.

Rather than offer credible strategies for deficit reduction, the President’s spending blueprint would saddle Americans with more debt and burden job creators with higher taxes.  As the headline on a recent editorial in USA Today puts it, the President’s plan “leaves [the] debt bomb ticking.”  It squanders an opportunity for constructive dialogue about real budget reform in favor of campaign-ready rhetoric.

A Flawed Plan

Families, businesses, and organizations across the country know the importance of having a sensible budget and living within it.  President Obama and Senate Democrats could learn from their example.  Senate Democrats have not passed a budget in more than 1,000 days, and last year’s costly budget proposal from the President failed to earn a single vote from members of either party.  Now, instead of rising to the challenge, the President’s new proposal pushes America further away from fiscal solvency. 

• It spends too much.  In the past three years, the Obama Administration has added $5 trillion to the federal debt and run the highest deficits since 1945.  This budget shows no signs of change.  It calls for $3.8 trillion in spending next year and $47 trillion in spending over the next 10 years.  Billions of dollars would go to pet projects like the ones in the President’s 2009 failed stimulus.  The national debt would grow from today’s record-high $15.4 trillion to an astonishing $25.9 trillion by 2022.   

• It taxes too much. To pay for even more of his big-government agenda, President Obama has proposed the largest tax hike in history.  His budget would impose $1.9 trillion in new taxes – hurting families and small businesses already struggling in a tough economy.  Many of these tax proposals have been rejected repeatedly by Congress and members of the President’s own party.  Instead of empowering job creators, higher taxes would take away precious capital that the private sector could use to expand and hire.

• It borrows too much.  Even with new taxes, President Obama will still fail to fulfill his promise of cutting the deficit in half, which he pledged to do by the end of his first term.  Under the new budget, the annual deficit would never drop below $575 billion over the next decade – remaining higher than the deficit President Obama inherited.  Since he took office, the deficit has yet to fall below $1 trillion. 

A Sustainable Future

More spending, borrowing, and taxing will not guide us to recovery.  Neither will budget proposals that shirk tough decisions because of the election calendar.  Under President Obama’s latest budget, the national debt would continue to eclipse the entire economy, and its biggest drivers – entitlement programs – are left without meaningful reform.

I remain committed to budget solutions that put the country on a sustainable fiscal course.  That is why I supported the Balanced Budget Amendment last year and continue to call for legislative action that curbs runaway spending.  Fixing the debt crisis is critical to America’s future prosperity.  Without a serious budget, we move further away from this goal. 

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