Budgeting for the future

Each year the House of Representatives is responsible for producing a budget for the upcoming fiscal year. This week, House Republicans introduced our budget plan, The Path to Prosperity. The House plan is a responsible step in the right direction and tackles our spending problem head-on.

It provides a path to a balanced budget, eliminates funding for Obamacare and repeals the taxes in the law, and rejects the White House’s call for new taxes. Instead, the plan fixes the broken tax code to make it fairer and simpler for our families and small businesses. The House plan reduces deficits by $4.6 trillion over the next ten years and makes it clear that the government cannot continue to pile this burden of debt on the backs of our children and grandchildren. Reducing spending to balance our budget is critical to growing our economy and creating American jobs. It also preserves and strengthens programs, such as Medicare and Social Security, for future generations while protecting benefits for today’s seniors.

This week, after four years of inaction, the Senate finally introduced a budget. However, the long sought after plan raises taxes, never balances, and leaves much to be desired. While the House is hard at work on policies to address America’s fiscal challenges, the president’s budget has been inexplicably delayed until April – a full two months late. However, he has already said he wouldn’t balance the budget “just for the sake of balance.”

The House budget doesn’t balance just for the sake of it. It balances because it must. Spending is the problem. Recently, 180 American economists signed a statement agreeing that the massive debt from excessive spending is hurting our economy. A budget blueprint that does not fully address this problem will not solve anything. A balanced budget is a means to an end and is necessary to fix this problem and protect the American dream. A new analysis estimates that the budget plan would result in approximately 5 million added jobs by 2023 due to reduced debt.

As a longtime proponent of a balanced budget and sponsor of the Balanced Budget Amendment in the House, I support this plan to put America back on the path to balance and prosperity. The budget plan has already passed the House Budget Committee and is slated to be considered on the House floor in the coming days. The Congress – both the House and Senate – have a responsibility to put together a sustainable budget and stick to it. I urge the president and Senate Democrats to join us in this common sense goal.

To govern is to choose and the path of choice is clear. Balancing the budget is the responsibility of America’s lawmakers. I remain committed to making the tough but necessary decisions to cut government spending and ensure a more prosperous future for America.