John Boehner 8TH DISCTRICT OF OHIO

Our country continues to face serious economic and fiscal challenges. Our nation’s debt is currently approaching $16 trillion, with a budget deficit in excess of $1.1 trillion this year alone. Our entitlement programs are heading towards bankruptcy. The uncertainty being created by Washington’s irresponsible spending habits is threatening job creation. And unfortunately, instead of agreeing to stop spending money we don’t have, President Obama and his allies in the Democratic-controlled Senate continue to advocate more ‘stimulus’ spending, threatening to make our economy even worse.

Americans are disappointed that the president is shrinking from tackling the challenges before us, rather than displaying the courage needed to solve them. My colleagues and I in the U.S. House of Representatives are taking action to address our government’s out-of-control spending, because that’s the job we were sent to Washington to do.

On March 29^th, House Republicans, led by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), passed a responsible budget that would help put Americans back to work, protect our seniors, close President Obama’s massive budget deficits, and do ‘all of the above’ to address high gas prices.

Our Path to Prosperity FY 2013 budget plan makes the choices that need to be made to address the staggering deficits and debt that are slowing our economic recovery, costing jobs, and threatening to destroy the American dream. Our budget:

• Cuts trillions in government spending;
• Tackles the drivers of our debt;
• Ensures a level playing field for all by putting an end to special-interest favoritism and corporate welfare;
• Reverses the President’s policies that drive up gas prices, and instead promotes an ‘all-of the-above’ national energy strategy;
• Strengthens health and retirement security by taking power away from government bureaucrats and empowering patients;
• And reforms our broken tax code to spur job creation and economic opportunity by lowering rates and closing loopholes.

The House Republican budget offers a clear choice of two futures. The American people understand that the government has to stop spending money we don’t have. My colleagues and I have presented the only budget in Washington that reflects this common-sense principle, providing a plan to ensure taxpayer dollars are used efficiently and effectively.

By contrast, the President has offered a budget with large deficits that even the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says will hurt our nation’s economy. As The Hill recently noted, the CBO analysis found that President Obama’s 2013 budget 'will hurt the economy in the long term,' chiefly because 'the larger deficits it would produce would reduce the amount of capital available to businesses.' CBO found the president’s budget 'would reduce economic output by between 0.5 percent and 2.2 percent,' The Hill reported.

At least the president bothered to offer a budget, which is more than can be said of his fellow Democrats in the U.S. Senate, which hasn’t put forth a budget in three years. Some Washington insiders say Americans don’t care about this. But from listening to people in our district and across the country, I know Americans do care. The failure to pass a budget means missing an opportunity to rein in government spending, which means missing an opportunity to provide the fiscal discipline economists say is needed to create jobs and grow the economy. The American people understand this, and it makes them angry that the Senate is shirking this responsibility.

The Senate’s failure to do a real budget is an inexcusable failure to lead. The American people expect us to do our jobs. That’s why my colleagues and I offered and passed our Path to Prosperity budget.