Prescott eNews

WASHINGTON, DC – Representative Ann Kirkpatrick today released the following statement in response to President Barack Obama’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget proposal, which includes $100 billion more in spending than his FY2010 proposal and would produce a record $1.56 trillion budget deficit:

“The President’s budget proposal includes some valuable first steps, such as eliminating unnecessary programs in the Environmental Protection Agency, but more work is needed to achieve real progress towards fiscal discipline.

“With our national debt reaching historic heights each week, allowing another year of record deficits is unacceptable – we must act now, not later. It will take significant spending cuts to get our fiscal house in order, and we have to go further than this to get the job done.

“We need to make difficult decisions for this year’s budget, and then again after the deficit commission makes its recommendations. Cutting the budget will not be easy, and there will be some unpopular choices to be made about our priorities. But the longer we delay, the tougher it will get. “This plan seems to set aside those choices until the commission finishes its work. I believe a strong, independent commission could be a critical tool, but we cannot wait for it to take action. This is the time for us to put politics aside and start making the tough calls.

“Families in my district are cutting back and finding ways to make every dollar count in these tough times – to do more with less. This government has to start following their example. I will be working with the House Budget Committee in the coming weeks to push for measures that will achieve that goal.”

BACKGROUND:

The White House today unveiled the President’s budget proposal for the next fiscal year, which includes $3.83 trillion in federal spending. It puts a freeze on non-security discretionary spending levels into place, but it targets just $20 billion in cuts and it is anticipated that it will increase the deficit above last year’s record level by more than $100 billion. It is also approximately $100 billion larger than the President’s FY2010 budget proposal.

Rep. Kirkpatrick has been a leading advocate for fiscal discipline in the 111th Congress. She has called for significant spending cuts for FY2011 and supported deep reductions in last year’s appropriations bills as part of her “Do More With Less” Initiative. The Congresswoman was an early voice for using bank bailout funds to pay down the debt and is part of the bipartisan coalition supporting a strong, independent deficit reduction commission.

Rep. Kirkpatrick was also an original co-sponsor of the “pay-as-you-go” legislation which has now passed both chambers, is standing behind a bill to block the automatic annual pay increase for Members of Congress and is leading a fight to close down a tax loophole that has cost taxpayers billions and is putting more than 300 jobs in her district at risk.

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