Congress Unanimously Rejects President Obama's Budget...Again
For the second time in as many years, not a single member of the President’s own party was willing to vote for his budget.
Last night the House of Representatives voted, 414-0, to reject the President’s budget proposal. Yes, you read that right: even the most liberal members of Congress voted against it, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), cap-and-trade co-authors Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Ed Markey (D-MA), and the man responsible for the damaging Dodd-Frank financial overhaul, Barney Frank (D-MA). This sad performance follows up a unanimous 97-0 rejection of the President’s budget last year in the Senate.
This shouldn’t be too surprising. As AFP noted when it was released in February, the President’s budget sought a nearly $2 trillion tax hike on America’s job creators at a time when the economy continues to struggle and the unemployment rate remains unusually high. And it would have done little to address the looming fiscal problems of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid that promise to bankrupt the nation in the coming years.
Many Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), believe a better option is to put no budget proposal on the table at all so they can attack their political opponents while avoiding accountability for what they do support.
Nevertheless, the House will continue to do its job and vote on more serious budget proposals throughout the day today. This includes the Paul Ryan budget blueprint and the conservative Republican Study Committee’s alternative, both of which put our country back on the path to fiscal sanity and draw a sharp contrast with our tax-and-spend President and do-nothing Senate. AFP has endorsed both proposals.
q Comments
blog comments powered by Disqus