News Release
Spratt Statement on President Obama’s Budget
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 26, 2009
WASHINGTON – House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt issued the following statement on President Obama’s budget for Fiscal Year 2010, which arrived on Capitol Hill today.
“The President has recognized that we have not one but two deficits. The first is an economy running at 6.8 percent or a trillion dollars below potential. To put the economy on its feet, the President last week signed into law a package of stimulus measures. This week, he turned to the budget, and at the White House summit, stated his determination to cut the deficit by half by 2013. It’s almost impossible to balance the budget when the economy is in recession, and all the more difficult when what we do to make the economy better necessarily makes the deficit worse, at least in the short run.
“But here’s the stark reality: the deficit that President Bush left behind will be 9 percent of our Gross Domestic Product. And here’s President Obama’s response: over the next four years, under his budget, the deficit will be pared down to 3 percent of GDP.
“President Obama’s budget slices the deficit by more than half, to $533 billion, in four years, but it is not so committed to deficit reduction that it overrides other compelling needs. It takes on topics that earlier budgets have found too tough to tackle, like climate change and health care for the millions who are uninsured. It slows the growth of defense spending and fixes the alternative minimum tax.
“Some will single out instances where additional revenue is raised – by discontinuing, for example, certain concessions for upper-bracket taxpayers. But the bigger picture will show that this budget leaves in place the middle-income tax cuts adopted in 2001 and 2003: the 10 percent bracket, the child tax credit, and marital penalty relief. It indexes the alternative minimum tax to keep it from burdening middle-income taxpayers for whom it was never intended. It extends estate tax relief at 2009 levels, and helps working families by continuing Make Work Pay.
“More detail and study is needed before we can write a budget resolution, and it’s important to note that some of the President’s initiatives must be implemented via deficit-neutral reserve funds. This is just the beginning, but a bold beginning for the 2010 budget process. Many in Congress, myself included, will be pleased to see the deficit decline through 2013, but will want to keep it declining thereafter. So, this is not by any means the end of the process. In the weeks ahead, I hope that we can improve the budget in ways such as this, but today’s budget overview marks a strong beginning.”
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Chairman Spratt's Opening Statement at a Press Conference on the Obama Budget
