Isakson dubs president’s proposal a ‘Budget for Failure’

Media release:  U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., today called the president's budget proposal for fiscal year 2013 a "budget for failure," saying that the president's plan keeps the federal government on a path of reckless spending and unsustainable debt.

 

The president claims that his plan will reduce the deficit by about $4 trillion over the next 10 years, but his proposal relies on a calculated series of budget gimmicks. In reality, the president's plan achieves approximately $273 billion in total deficit reduction over 10 years. Under this plan, the country will accumulate an estimated $11 trillion in new gross debt.

 

"The only thing you can do with this budget is start over. I think that it's time that Washington does what the American people have had to do: sit around the kitchen table, prioritize spending, live within their means and budget for the future—don't budget for failure. The president's budget is a budget for failure," Isakson in a speech on the Senate floor. "The American people don't have the luxury of printing money. They have to manage their money and live within a budget. The United States government ought to do the same thing."

 

Isakson has introduced S. 211, the Biennial Budget Appropriations Act. This bipartisan legislation would convert the federal budget process from an annual, chaotic rush, to a two-year, more thoughtful process that requires Congress to conduct oversight. The Biennial Budgeting and Appropriations Act dedicates the first year of a Congress to appropriating federal dollars and devotes the second year to scrutinizing federal programs to determine whether they are working and deserve continued funding. Isakson is also a co-sponsor of a constitutional amendment to balance the federal budget and has supported measures to curb federal spending, reform the budgeting process and increase oversight of federal spending.