John Boehner 8TH DISCTRICT OF OHIO

BAD FOR JOBS: The President’s Budget Makes It Harder for Small Businesses to Hire New Workers…

• The president’s budget includes a $1.9 trillion tax hike that House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) warns “will make it harder for businesses to create jobs and for workers to spur economic growth.” (The Washington Post, 2/13/12) 

• Despite the failure of the ‘stimulus’ to keep the unemployment rate below 8 percent as promised by the administration, President Obama’s budget “includes $350 billion in stimulus measures…” (The Hill, 2/13/12)

• “The fourth budget of Obama’s presidency is largely a repackaging of September’s jobs and deficit-reduction proposal” – including its tax hike on small business job creators. (Bloomberg, 2/13/12)

BAD FOR SENIORS: The President’s Budget Doesn’t Protect Entitlement Programs from Bankruptcy…

• “[T]he president’s budget, like his previous proposals, steers clear of major changes” to the primary drivers of our nation’s debt (Los Angeles Times, 2/13/12),  “does little to restrain growth in the U.S. government’s huge entitlement programs,” (Fox News, 2/13/12) and does not “address long-term problems tied to America’s aging work force.” (CNN, 2/13/12)

BAD FOR ECONOMIC SECURITY: The President’s Budget Fails to Address Our National Debt…

• “The spending plan forecasts more red ink in the current fiscal year than in 2011,” (NPR, 2/13/12) and “would mark the fourth straight year that deficit spending exceeds $1 trillion and falls well short of his [President’s Obama’s] 2009 promise to ‘cut the deficit we inherited by half by the end of my first term in office.’” (ABC News, 2/13/12).

• “[T]he new 10-year blueprint shows annual deficits exceeding $600 billion every year except 2018. And the portion of the debt held by outside investors would grow to $18.7 trillion by 2021, or 76.5 percent of the economy — a full $1 trillion higher.” (The Washington Post, 2/13/12)

• “The cumulative national debt would rise from $15.2 trillion to nearly $26 trillion over the coming decade.” (USA Today, 2/13/12)

IS A POLITICAL DOCUMENT: The President’s Budget is Focused on His Re-Election Campaign…

• “Rather than a realistic road map for government spending, the White House budget is likely to serve as a political tool in the president’s re-election bid.” (NPR, 2/13/12)

• Obama administration officials acknowledge “the bulk of their plan is a campaign blueprint more than anything.” (The Wall Street Journal, 2/13/12)

• As National Journal notes, “The president’s tax ideas are political statements in line with his campaign themes,” and are “borrowed, polished, and gussied up from the Occupy Wall Street movement.” (National Journal, 2/13/12)

Chairman Ryan outlined how President Obama’s budget charts “a path to debt and decline” by spending too much ($47 trillion in 10 years), taxing too much ($1.9 trillion in new tax hikes) and borrowing too much ($11 trillion added to the debt).  House Republicans will once again fill the leadership void left by President Obama’s failed spending plan by putting forth a budget in the coming weeks that “will focus on putting Americans back to work, protecting American seniors, and closing the massive deficits that have become a hallmark of President Obama’s time in office,” Congressman Boehner said today.  Getting a handle on our nation’s fiscal situation is critical for creating a better environment for private-sector job growth and protecting health and retirement security for seniors, and the House Republican Majority will not sit on the sidelines while President Obama’s policies continue making the economy worse.  

Visit the House Budget Committee website for more analysis of the president’s budget, and follow what House Republicans are doing to create a better environment for private-sector job growth with the Plan for America’s Job Creators at jobs.gop.gov.