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Washington, DC-- Yesterday Congressman David Wu continued his efforts to enact common sense fiscal policy by voting against the budget resolution conference report for fiscal year 2005. The Budget Act requires a budget resolution to provide spending and revenue levels for five years, but the Republican Budget passed by the House provides budget policies for only one year, masking the true impact of the Republicans' policies.
"What was presented to us was nothing more then a fiscal funhouse mirror; it distorts current fiscal reality," said Congressman David Wu. "By providing only a single year of budget policy, this is not a realistic budget, and its deficit totals vastly understate the consequences of careless policies."
Because of this single-year budget, the Republican budget policy does not include the full cost of the majority's stated budget agenda. The budget plan also increases the debt limit by $690 billion to a new limit of $8.1 trillion, but provides no plan to return to a balanced budget. The last time that the budget resolution conference report did not provide policy numbers for more than one year was fiscal year 1979-a quarter century ago.
This budget also rejects the meaningful Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) enforcement rule, which provides that no new increases in government spending can occur with out indicating where the offsetting revenue will come from. The Republican budget limits PAYGO to only a single year and applies only to the Senate version of the proposed budget and not the House.
"We have a responsibility to fight for a real, honest budget blueprint, which is why I supported a Democratic budget plan that would have balanced the budget in eight years, provide tax relief for middle income hard-working families, and invest in America's priorities without adding to the deficit."
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