Budget

Budgets are about priorities. They list what we care about, and in dollar amounts, they quantify how much we care. As an annual framework for federal spending and revenue levels, the budget helps chart a path toward fiscal responsibility and the overall health of our national economy.  Like so many Americans, I am amazed that Congress has run the country on short-term, haphazard budgets for the past four years. Our businesses and communities can no longer afford such unsustainable practices.

As a member of the Senate Budget Committee, I am committed to working with my colleagues - from both sides of the aisle - to find solutions that chart a serious and credible path to broad-based economic growth. In that pursuit, everything must be on the table for consideration and we must approach the process earnestly and in good faith. Americans have seen the results of intractable political positions and they are fed up with gridlock. They expect us, as their elected representatives, to solve the problems facing our nation and we have an opportunity now to demonstrate that we still can.

It is important to understand that the overall rise in healthcare costs is driving our federal deficits – not increases in Pell Grants, school aid, or expenditures on defense. Efforts to balance the budget by focusing primarily on cuts in these and similar areas are misguided and ineffective. We need instead a national focus on controlling healthcare costs generally, for the sake of our personal budgets as well as those of government.

As a former Governor, I understand all too well the difficult choices that accompany the process of setting a budget.  But we didn’t come here to deliberate on a series of easy choices – we were sent here to make the hard choices that will help the American people. After all, the budget is our most significant policy decision.  Agreeing to a budget resolution will not be easy, but budgeting is a fundamental task of governing.  It’s part of why I am here.  I’m ready to make the hard choices – and I believe that my congressional colleagues on both sides of the aisle are, too. 

My priorities include:

• Passing a bipartisan budget resolution, agreed to by the House and the Senate, for the upcoming fiscal year. I voted in favor of the Senate Budget Resolution, S. Con. Res. 8, on March 23, 2013  because I believe it responsibly reduces our debt and deficits over the next ten years while ensuring that government spending is focused on programs and priorities that will create sustainable and broad-based economic growth.  It is now critical that the House and Senate iron out the differences between their two budgets to produce one budget that will set the framework for spending and revenue levels for the upcoming fiscal year.  

As the Senate and the House go about reconciling their different budget resolutions, my budgetary priorities include:

~ Minimizing Additional Cuts to Non-Defense Discretionary Spending

It is clear that any balanced budget deal will require both additional spending reductions and revenues.  Non-defense discretionary spending represents annually appropriated funds for a wide range of programs including; HEAD START, low-income housing assistance, Pell Grants, and Meals on Wheels. However, as this kind of spending is already projected to sink to a 50-year low by 2023, it should not have to shoulder a disproportionate share of additional cuts.  Further significant cuts would harm American families and communities who rely on these programs to help reinvest in themselves. 

~ Protect State Programs

The budget resolution should not include cuts to state programs that would essentially shift the burden of budgetary responsibilities from the federal level to the state level, especially with regard to Medicaid.

~ Regain Control of Federal Healthcare Expenditures

The long-term growth of federal healthcare expenditures is the single largest threat to our fiscal sustainability. It is critical that we find ways to make healthcare more efficient and affordable for all Americans, without impacting the quality and accessibility of care.    

~ Raise Revenue Through Tax Reform

As Congress considers how to raise necessary revenues, I propose that additional revenue first be raised by reforming and eliminating tax expenditures.  Our federal tax code is inefficient and full of loopholes, which have grown substantially over recent decades, almost doubling in real terms from $508 billion in 1988 to over $1.025 trillion in 2010.  In a 2012 report from the Joint Committee on Taxation, the committee lists tax expenditures at over $1 trillion dollars, constituting a larger part of the budget than Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security or National Defense.  Reforming tax expenditures is a critical part of our deficit-reduction efforts. 

~ Increased Funding for America’s Infrastructure Networks

The budget should reflect the critical need to increase funding for our nation’s infrastructure systems.  Many of America’s road, bridges, water lines, sewage systems, and dams are reaching the ends of their planned life cycles and require significant investments to be rebuilt. Allowing our infrastructure to further decay is not only irresponsible; it is also a missed opportunity to invest in American workers who are ready, willing, and able to help modernize this country’s transportation, water, freight, and communication networks.  

Click here to access the full document.

• Biennial Budgeting. Budgeting by crisis is out.  It’s time to embrace a workable budget process that introduces the budgetary stability our country needs so that investors and entrepreneurs will have the confidence to continue to invest in our economy.   
  

I am proud to cosponsor S.554, the Biennial Budgeting and Appropriations Act, which would convert the budget and appropriations process from a one-year cycle to a two-year cycle.  During the first session of Congress, Members would be required to adopt a two-year budget resolution and two-year appropriations bills.  During the second session of Congress, Members would focus on oversight, issue debate, and reviewing reauthorizations. This change would allow Congress and federal agencies to devote less time to the budget process without sacrificing the quality of the input. 

Click here to access the full text of the bill.

• Closing unfair tax loop-holes.  I am a co-sponsor of the Properly Reducing Overexemptions for Sports Act (PRO Sports Act) with Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK). This bill would amend the tax code to prohibit professional sports organizations with annual revenues exceeding $10 million from enjoying the same tax-exempt, 501(c)(6) status as industry trade associations and public interest groups.