Enzi Says President's Budget is Over Budget

Washington, D.C. – Today U.S. Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), a member of the Senate Budget Committee and Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, released the following statement in response to President Obama’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2012:

“More spending, more taxes and more borrowing describes the President’s budget in a nutshell. The President's deficit commission, co-chaired by former Senator Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.), as well as the Congressional Budget Office have already advised that maintaining current spending levels – as the President’s so-called ‘spending freeze’ does - will quickly lead to another year with a deficit of more than a trillion dollars. Since 2008, the majority in Congress has increased federal agency budgets by more than 15 percent.  They have forced passage of high cost legislation and raised the debt ceiling three times.

"Congress now has the opportunity to do the right thing for our economy and the American taxpayer by passing a budget that will actually move us out from under the shadow of debt, a budget that can grow the economy, not the government.  The President missed an opportunity to lay out a vision on how we can rein in spending and fix our entitlement problem.

“For the remaining seven months of this fiscal year, I am urging members of Congress to find $100 billion in budget savings. The Senate Budget Committee needs to put together a budget for fiscal year 2012 that removes obstacles facing businesses, allows states to make wise spending decisions and gives our economy the freedom to expand.”