Passing a Budget

A budget is a statement of one's priorities. Families have to live within their own budgets; Washington should have to do the same. This week, the president will finally unveil his budget proposal two months late. In President Obama's five years in office, this will be the fourth budget that he has submitted to Congress after the deadline, which is the first Monday in February.

House Republicans didn't wait for the president's proposal, which will likely be more of the same. Instead, we acted. We passed a budget that repeals the president's health care law, allows states more flexibility to target Medicaid and other assistance to those most in need, and consolidates workforce training programs to reduce duplication and streamline the process. This will result in $4.6 trillion of spending reforms. Most importantly, the House plan would balance the budget.

We also forced the Senate to pass a budget for the first time in almost four years by passing the so-called ‘No Budget, No Pay' legislation, which would have withheld the salaries of members of Congress should they fail to pass a budget. In fact, the last time the Senate passed a budget in 2009, the iPad wasn't even invented yet. But in contrast to the House-passed budget, the Senate budget would increase government spending by $265 billion and increases taxes by another nearly $1 trillion. It comes nowhere close to balancing the budget ever.

The contrasts between these two visions of our fiscal future are clear. We'll see where the president comes down this week.

# # #