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U.S. Representative John Spratt
The national debt on November 13:     $8,606,302,977,745.38
Your share of the national debt:     $28,668.62

The Republican Economic Record: Rhetoric vs. Reality
October 23, 2006 -- Earlier today, President Bush touted the Republican economic record at an event in Washington. While Administration officials are quick to use any encouraging economic sign to paint a picture of broad success, economic reality often does not match Republican rhetoric. Click here for an updated version of a report prepared by the Democratic staffs of the House Budget Committee and Joint Economic Committee detailing the contrast between many of the Administration’s economic claims about jobs, wages, income, and debt, and economic reality.

Republican Budget Deficits: A Continuing Problem with Long-Term Consequences
October 11, 2006 -- Despite today’s announcement of a smaller than anticipated budget deficit for fiscal year 2006, the forecast for future Republican deficits remains bleak. The Republican Congress and Administration still have no plan for wiping out the long-term budget deficits that they have created. Read more here about how Republicans have transformed record budget surpluses into triple-digit deficits that undermine our economic security and will leave our children a mountain of debt.

Republican Budgets Cut Funding for Critical Veterans’ Programs
October 5, 2006 -- Last week, the Republican-controlled Congress recessed prior to enacting the appropriations bill that funds veterans’ programs for 2007. Instead, it passed a continuing resolution that provides funding to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) at the 2006 level for the first six weeks of the new fiscal year, which began on October 1, 2006. Consequently, the VA will receive $438 million less for veterans’ health care over the first six weeks of the fiscal year than it would have available to spend if Congress passed the 2007 VA appropriations bill before adjourning. Unfortunately, these cuts continue a pattern of Republicans failing to adequately fund critical veterans’ programs. By contrast, House Democrats have repeatedly offered budgets and amendments to appropriations bills to adequately fund veterans’ services. Click here to read a report prepared by the House Budget Committee Democratic staff that documents how Republican budgets have repeatedly underfunded veterans’ programs and how Democratic budgets would have adequately funded them.

Recess Packet on Budget and Economy
September 29, 2006 -- Two months ago we released a report, prepared by the Democratic staffs of the House Budget Committee and Joint Economic Committee, detailing how the Administration’s claims of economic success were not matched by reality. Today, we are releasing an updated version of the report, with the most current data and some additional information. Click here to read the updated report.

Budget Deficits Contribute to U.S. Slide to 6th in
Global Competitiveness

September 27, 2006 -- Yesterday the World Economic Forum (WEF) released a report concluding that the United States economy has slipped from first to sixth in global competitiveness, in part because of the large deficits and mounting debt the federal budget now faces. The United States economy is now ranked behind Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Singapore in the WEF’s measure of competitiveness. The finding by the WEF supports the notion that responsible fiscal policies lead to a healthy and competitive economy. Unfortunately, Republicans’ misguided budget policies of record deficits and record debt have taken us in the wrong direction. Click here to read the summary of the report issued yesterday by the WEF.

Year-End Republican Budget Report Card: F
September 27, 2006 -- The Republican Congress and Administration will end fiscal year 2006 on Saturday with an overall “F” on their budget report card. The Republican Congress has failed to pass a concurrent budget resolution governing spending and revenues. It has failed so far to send a single 2007 appropriations bill to the President – and is unlikely to pass more than two bills before the new fiscal year begins on Sunday. Meanwhile, its inability to set wise fiscal priorities has taken a government budget surplus of $128 billion in 2001 and transformed it into record deficits. Click here to read a report by the House Budget Committee Democratic staff outlining the failures of the Republican Congress to bring the budget back to balance, lower the national debt, or reduce the growing interest payments on that debt.

Materials for Five-Minute Speeches
September 20, 2006 -- Last night, several colleagues presented compelling Five-Minute Speeches on the budget. Click here for charts and data assembled to assist in these presentations.

CBO's Summer Budget Update: The Fiscal Outlook Remains Bleak
August 17, 2006 -- Today’s budget update projects a deficit of $260 billion this year, the sixth largest in our nation’s history. A $260 billion deficit is no reason to celebrate, especially when the deficit forecast for next year – $286 billion – gets worse, and the long-term outlook remains so bleak. The report prepared by the House Budget Committee Democratic staff analyzes the CBO budget update.

Administration's Economic Policies Fall Short of Claims, Report Shows
July 24, 2006 -- The House Budget Committee and the Joint Economic Committee Democratic staffs today released a report about the state of the economy.  The report focuses on how the economy is faring under current policies, as opposed to the Bush Administration’s claims. Today’s report is noteworthy partly because it finds that the Administration’s own data are at odds with the rosy claims asserted by Administration officials on a host of economic issues. Click here to read the report.

Administration’s Mid-Session Review of the Budget
July 11, 2006 -- Click here to read the House Budget Committee Democratic staff’s analysis of the Administration’s Mid-Session Review of the Budget. Click here to access the charts used in the analysis. Click here to read Congressman Spratt’s press release on the Mid-Session Review.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Federal Budget
June 29, 2006 -- Click here to read the latest version of the document entitled “Frequently Asked Questions About the Federal Budget,” prepared by the House Budget Committee Democratic Staff. The document answers common questions about the national budget, and additional information.

Spratt Introduces Tough Budget Control Measure in the House
June 22, 2006 -- Today the House is considering H.R. 4890, the Legislative Line Item Veto Act of 2006. Click here to read Congressman John Spratt’s press release about the budget control bill he has introduced, the Deficit Reduction and Effective Legislative Line Item Veto Act, and his concerns about H.R. 4890.

An Analysis of the RSC Budget
June 1, 2006 -- The Republican Study Committee (RSC) proposed an alternative to the House Republican budget resolution earlier this month that cuts funding for Medicare and drastically shrinks the nation’s commitment to homeland security, education, economic development, and other national priorities while cutting taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars. Click here to read more about the RSC budget.

Fact Sheets on the Flawed Republican Budget
May 18, 2006 -- The fiscal year 2007 budget passed by Republicans early Thursday morning is a flawed plan. It passed by a vote of 218-210, with not a single Democrat in support and 12 Republicans voting against it. The Republican budget makes harmful cuts to vital services while it also makes the deficit worse, offers no plan to bring the budget back to balance, and adds to the growing burden of the national debt, leading to a new debt limit increase of $653 billion.

Click here to read fact sheets and charts that highlight just some of the fundamental flaws of the Republican budget. Among the flaws are its fiscal irresponsibility and its cuts to critical domestic services such as education, veterans’ health care, homeland security, public health and research, environmental protection, and services for families and communities.

The fact sheets also illustrate the strengths of the Democratic budget. It rejected the Republican budget’s deep cuts to domestic priorities while reaching balance in 2012. In addition, it had smaller deficits than the Republican budget, accumulated less debt, and repealed the House rule providing for automatic debt limit increases. It also backed reinstatement of the pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) rules that helped turn record deficits to record surpluses in the 1990s.

Deeming Resolution is a Proxy for Misguided House Republican Budget
May 18, 2006 -- While House Republicans last night passed their flawed budget resolution, the chances of ever passing a conference report are minimal. As a result, Republicans are now likely to try to pass an overall “deeming resolution” locking in their budget – a role usually performed by the budget resolution conference report. Click here to read more on the deeming resolution.

Republican Budget Resolution Continues Legacy of Debt
May 12, 2006 -- Yesterday’s decision by the Republican leadership to pull the budget resolution from floor consideration marked the second time in as many months that consideration of the budget has been postponed because of insufficient support. While we anticipate that the Republican leadership will try again next week, the fiscal irresponsibility and misplaced priorities that characterize the budget will remain unchanged. Click here to read more about this budget resolution’s continuation of the Republican record of huge deficits and ballooning debt.

Social Security’s Financial Status Would Be Worse
Under the President’s Privatization Plan
May 2, 2006 -- The 2006 Trustees Report for Social Security, released yesterday, projects that the Social Security trust fund will become exhausted in 2040, one year earlier than was projected in last year’s report. Social Security’s finances must be strengthened in order to improve retirement security for today’s young workers. However, the President’s plan to divert a portion of Social Security payroll contributions into private accounts does the opposite. The President’s plan, included in his 2007 budget, worsens Social Security’s financial problems and increases deficits and the publicly held debt for years to come, even as it imposes steep cuts to traditional Social Security benefits.

An analysis of the President’s plan based on the assumptions in the 2005 Trustees Report found that the plan would speed up the date of Social Security trust fund exhaustion by 11 years, to 2030. Private accounts, by themselves, do nothing to reduce the long-term budget challenges associated with the aging of the American population. They simply make the budget situation worse. The President’s 2007 budget estimates that the Social Security private accounts plan will add $712 billion to the deficit over the next ten years. The drain on the budget continues long after ten years. Under the President’s plan, even with significant benefit cuts, the level of federal debt held by the public would be higher with the private accounts than without them for the next six decades.

For the past five years, President Bush and the Republican majorities in the House and Senate have pursued a failed fiscal policy that has resulted in record deficits, growing debt, and harmful cuts to important services for families while protecting benefits for narrow interests. The President’s plan to convert part of Social Security into private accounts financed by borrowed money is just another manifestation of a fiscal policy that has lost its moorings.

Total Iraq War Costs Through 2006 Estimated at $320 Billion
May 1, 2006 -- Please click here to read more about the Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on war costs released last week. CRS estimates that funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and enhanced security operations at military installations since September 11 will increase to about $439 billion with the passage of the President’s 2006 supplemental request. Total funding just for Iraq operations will increase to $320 billion. These estimates include funding for military, reconstruction, and diplomatic operations; foreign aid; and veterans’ health care.

House Republican Budget Resolution: Harsh Spending Cuts and Large Deficits
April 3, 2006 -- This week the House will consider the Republican budget resolution, which was marked up and approved by the Budget Committee last week on a strict party-line vote. The Committee-reported resolution shares all of the flaws of the President's budget: damaging spending cuts, continued large deficits, and spiraling debt. The Committee-reported resolution makes harmful cuts to critical services for working families - including health, education, veterans' services, and environmental protection - and uses these cuts to partly pay for new tax cuts rather than to reduce the deficit. Click here to read more about the Committee-reported budget resolution.

A Chronicle of the Republican Reconciliation Spending Cuts Bill: Is it the Law of the Land?
February 27, 2006 -- On February 8, 2006, the President signed into law the Republican reconciliation spending cuts bill (P.L. 109-171). However, the version signed into law is not the same version that passed the House of Representatives on February 1, 2006, raising serious constitutional problems and calling into question whether the law is valid. Click here to read an explanation of how these events came to pass.

Summary and Analysis of the President's Fiscal Year 2007 Budget
February 9, 2006 -- Over the last four years, the Administration has produced the four biggest deficits in history, and the 2006 deficit of $423 billion is projected to be the largest of all. Aside from the large deficits, the budget reflects the Administration’s decision to impose harmful cuts on important services for average Americans while protecting benefits for narrow interests. In addition, there is far less than meets the eye in some of the Administration’s high-profile budget initiatives, such as health care affordability and the so-called American Competitiveness Initiative. Clearly, this Administration’s policies continue to take the budget in the wrong direction.

Please click here to read the House Budget Committee Democratic staff’s comprehensive summary and analysis of the President’s budget. The document provides an overview of the budget’s major components – including deficits, taxes, and harmful cuts – as well as a detailed examination of the funding in each function of the budget.

Notes: The contents of this web site are produced and maintained by the Democratic staff of the House Budget Committee and do not necessarily reflect the individual views of the Committee's members. We are working to make this site compliant with the Section 508 ADA Guidelines.

 

 

Full List of Documents

See the complete list of 2006 documents from the Democratic Staff in reverse chronological order.


Charts & Graphics on the Federal Budget

Click here to view charts and other graphics on the federal budget.


Reconciliation

Click here for information on the reconciliation process and summaries of Congressional action.


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