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Dear Friend, Over the past few months, the President and Democrats in Congress have sought an agreement with House Republican leadership on the federal budget. We enacted several short-term budget bills, narrowly avoiding a government shutdown. These stop-gap measures are not the best way to govern, but they served the purpose of allowing negotiations to continue. Earlier this week, after much contemplation and careful study of the final product, I voted for a final budget deal that will cut $39 billion in spending but keeps the government open and working through the end of the current fiscal year. It is not without pain, but the overall package steered clear of the reckless cuts that were originally proposed by the Republican leadership – cuts that would have severely impacted investments in education and job training, scientific research, and other areas that are key to our economic recovery. It was signed into law by the President today. Unfortunately, even as this compromise was headed to the President, Republicans in the House of Representatives were moving back into an ideological corner, bringing to the House floor a radical budget blueprint for future years that showers more tax cuts on corporations and millionaires; undermines successful programs like Medicare; and proposes devastating cuts to education, energy development, scientific research, and the repair of our physical infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and public transportation. I believe this blueprint, proposed by Chairman Paul Ryan, would fundamentally change the social compact we have come to know in America. I voted against it because I did not believe it represents the values most Americans share. Budgeting for the Current Year The national debt is a tremendous challenge that requires our serious attention. Real solutions must include shared sacrifice and difficult tradeoffs between government services and tax policy. As difficult as this recent debate may have seemed, the cuts came primarily from what’s called non-security discretionary spending, which makes up only 13.3 percent of our budget. Security spending represents 23.8 percent of our budget and entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are 57.5 percent, with interest on the debt making up the remainder of our annual spending. In judging what reductions were acceptable, I drew the line against proposals that would have threatened our economic recovery and caused additional job losses just at the worst moment when we are beginning to find our way out of the recession. The most recent national job report was further evidence that we have turned a corner. In March, the United States economy added 216,000 jobs. In the first three months of 2011, we have added approximately half a million jobs. The unemployment rate has dropped to 8.8 percent, the lowest level in two years. According to many economists, this progress was jeopardized by the initial budget proposal offered by Republican leadership. Former McCain campaign economic advisor Mark Zandi estimated that the Republican budget proposal (H.R. 1) would cost the economy up to 700,000 jobs. Goldman Sachs and the Economic Policy Institute projected that it would slow economic growth by as much as two percent of GDP. The President and Democrats in the House and Senate pushed back hard against this proposal, not only because of potential job losses, but also because a slowing economy reduces tax revenue and compounds federal deficits. The alternative – the compromise negotiated among President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker John Boehner – is far from perfect. However, it preserves substantial commitments to key priority areas and, having gained Congressional passage and the signature of the President, avoided a potentially crippling government shutdown. After months of negotiation, I believe the final budget that we have enacted for the current year strikes a fair compromise, taking a step on deficit reduction while protecting our budding economic recovery. Budgeting for our Future The budget process is entirely about choices. By examining the priorities we set, you can draw conclusions about the values we believe to be most important. We cannot address our fiscal challenges without having an honest debate about what the American people expect in terms of government services. Then we can set an appropriate tax policy to pay for these services. This cannot happen overnight but, in the coming months, I believe the American people will be presented with two competing visions for our future. One vision, authored by Republican Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, is a transparent attempt to return us to Bush-era economic policies. It is trickle-down economics and deregulation in their most extreme form at a time when America needs to invest in repairing our physical infrastructure, building up our human capital through education and job training, and maintaining our environmental and civic integrity. The Republican budget recklessly slashes all of these commitments. It offers these radical cuts as a means to indulge more tax cuts for the very people who need them least. These are the very politics and policies that plunged us into the most dangerous economic crisis since the Great Depression and we cannot afford to go back. The other vision, as recently outlined by President Obama in a speech at George Washington University, seeks to address the national debt in a way that maintains the social compact between government and the American people. It is not without sacrifice on all levels, but it acknowledges a role for government in providing a safety net for average Americans in times of economic turbulence or illness. It maintains our commitment to seniors that they will have some measure of security after a lifetime of work. And it invests in programs that give working families the opportunity to advance through hard work and perseverance. I believe the President’s speech was a thorough and honest accounting of the challenges we face and would commend it to anyone who is interested in learning more about this important debate. Going Forward I look forward to hearing your input as we enter into this critical decision making process. As with the debate over the current year budget, I intend to keep an open mind and am willing to compromise to reach a level of consensus that will move us forward on a comprehensive and responsible long-term deficit reduction package – but I will oppose proposals that I believe undermine the basic premise that government is a means to ensure opportunity and fairness for all Americans. 
John P. Sarbanes
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