Senator Chris Coons participated in a colloquy on Thursday about the importance of passing a budget that reduces the deficit in a balanced way, promotes economic growth and job creation in the short term, invests in our competitiveness in the long term, and places a circle of protection around the most vulnerable in our society.
In this series of blog posts, Senator Coons’ legislative staff shares their analysis of the President’s State of the Union address with Delawareans.
In last night’s State of the Union address, President Obama underlined the importance of responsible deficit reduction. He reminded Americans that “over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion – mostly through spending cuts, but also by raising tax rates on the wealthiest one percent of Americans. As a result, we are more than halfway towards the goal of $4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists say we need to stabilize our finances.” He said is now time for Congress to “finish the job” and end the cycle of “drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next.”
Senator Coons, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, believes that our national debt and deficit are dangerous and unsustainable.
Democrats, Republicans and independent experts all agree that excessive debt hurts our competitiveness and crowds out critical investments in our country's future, in areas like education, infrastructure, research and development. That’s why Chris believes it is essential for members of both parties to come together and support balanced, responsible deficit reduction to get our nation’s finances back in order.
It’s hard to watch the news lately without hearing about the “fiscal cliff” awaiting Americans early next year — more than $500 billion in automatic spending cuts, tax increases and other fiscal changes set to kick in starting in January.
These questions, coupled with the paralyzing federal budget deficit and national debt, will have a significant impact on Delawareans.
Although I’ve worked on deficit reduction consistently during my two years in the Senate, my staff and I have invested additional time and energy these last few months preparing for the immediate economic choices required by the events of the fiscal cliff. Just as we do with our legislative briefing emails, I wanted you to have access to some of the same background and analysis that I do.
We’ve put together a white paper on the fiscal cliff — a primer on the economic issues Congress and the President are now working to confront — to give you a better idea of what to expect.
Click here for your copy of the white paper and to share your opinion on the fiscal cliff.
As it stands now, our budget deficit and national debt are simply unsustainable. A $1.3 trillion deficit and $16.3 trillion debt are unacceptable. This level of debt hurts our nation’s competitiveness, causes interest rates to rise over the long term and crowds out critical investments in our country’s future.
Congress should get a big, bipartisan deal done now to reduce our deficit and avert the very significant impact of the fiscal cliff, rather than waiting until next year.
It seems like an easy choice to simply kick the can down the road again, but the reality is that our country will need to make an array of tough decisions about our competing economic priorities over the next few months – priorities like keeping taxes low, investing in critical services, reducing our unsustainable annual deficits and stabilizing our debt.
I hope you’ll download my new white paper and share your opinion on the fiscal cliff.
There is no doubt that we can keep our nation moving forward, but we’ll have to work together to do it. Balance is the only responsible solution.
Best –
Chris Coons
U.S. Senator
U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) took to the Senate floor on July 25, 2012 to urge his Senate colleagues to stand together to vote for a tax proposal that will help create fairness in our nation's tax code by extending the so-called "Bush tax cuts" and other tax breaks for the middle class and low-income families, while allowing income tax, dividend, and capital gains rates to rise on earnings greater than $250,000.
NEW YORK — Senator Coons was interviewed about the "fiscal cliff" on CBS This Morning Saturday, describing his work with a bipartisan group of senators hoping to make real, rsponsible progress on reducing the deficit and minimizing the impact on Americans of a series of tax and legal changes due to take effect later this year. Watch below:
President Obama’s budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year (FY13) hit Capitol Hill this week, hot off the presses. Senator Coons reviewed the blueprint and praised it for responsibly reducing our country’s dangerous deficits while still investing in America’s long-term competitiveness.
After digesting the budget proposal’s many charts and numbers, our team has identified a few key highlights for Delaware, starting with responsible deficit reduction.
President Obama’s budget plan would save more than $4 trillion over 10 years, stabilizing public debt at 76.5% of GDP by 2022, with deficits declining to an average of 3% of GDP per year.
This blueprint reduces the deficit in four primary ways:
U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) spoke on the Senate floor on Wednesday to debate amending the Constitution to require the federal government to balance its budget.
Senator Chris Coons, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, was disappointed by the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction’s unwillingness and inability to reach a final agreement on a package of deficit reduction measures.
“The supercommittee’s failure to reach a $1.2 trillion deal, let alone a deal that found the $4 trillion we called for in the ‘Go Big Coalition,’ is a significant disappointment to me and to all Americans who had hoped that partisanship might finally be put aside for the sake of our country’s long-term economic security,” Chris said in a public statement. “This government cannot continue to function if only one party is willing to compromise for the good of our country. Both parties got us into this situation, and both parties must share in the sacrifice to get us out of it.
“The failure of the supercommittee, however, does not mean the end of Congress’ responsibility to enact real deficit reduction measures that ensure our country does not slip into the deep economic morass that is paralyzing Europe. Greece may have a math problem, but America has a leadership problem. We still have the opportunity to right our ship by making the bipartisan compromises necessary to confront the very significant challenges our nation faces. It is my hope that this moment brings more of my colleagues into the ranks of the bipartisan group of 45 senators who support comprehensive deficit reduction that shares in the sacrifice. Congress must move quickly to confront our nation’s fiscal challenges.”
Chris has been an outspoken advocate for national fiscal responsibility. Last Thursday, he attended a press conference with more than 40 of his Senate colleagues encouraging the supercommittee to “go big” on deficit reduction.
Earlier this month, Chris joined 44 of his Senate colleagues on a letter to the supercommittee members urging for at least $4 trillion in savings.
Click here to learn more about Chris’ work on the Budget Committee.
Senator Coons appeared on ABC's This Week program Sunday morning to talk about the bipartisan AGREE Act he introduced with Senator Rubio, and the work of the Congressional supercommittee on deficit reduction.
Senator Coons joined more than 40 of his colleagues from both the Senate and the House at a bipartisan press conference today urging the 12-member debt-reduction super committee to “go big” in recommending ways to reduce our annual deficits and national debt.
The committee, consisting of Republicans and Democrats from both chambers of Congress, is working to develop a plan by November 23, 2011 to save at least $1.2 trillion over a 10-year period.
Deficit and debt reduction has been a top priority for Chris, who is also a member of the Senate Budget Committee.
Earlier this month, Chris joined 44 of his Senate colleagues on a letter to the super committee members urging for at least $4 trillion in savings.
Click here to learn more about Chris’ work on the Budget Committee.
