Newly-Passed Budget Chooses Gimmicks and Debt over Fiscal Restraint

For Immediate Release

The House of Representatives passed the Senate-approved budget today. The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

Republicans in Congress laid out two visions in two budgets for our fiscal future, and today, they choose the path of gimmicks, debt, and absolutely zero fiscal restraint over the one of responsibility and balance.



While the original House budget balanced on paper and offered some real savings, the Senate’s version accepted today by the House fails to reach balance, enacts a pathetic $1 billion in spending cuts out of a possible $47 trillion, and allows for $1.5 trillion to be added to the national debt.



Make no mistake – this is a defining moment for the Republican party. After years of passing balanced budgets and calling for fiscal responsibility, the GOP is now on-the-record as supporting trillions in new debt for the sake of tax cuts over tax reform and failing to act on the pressing need to reform our largest entitlement programs.



Although Congress just took a radical detour, there is still time to reverse course. As the legislative process unfolds, we urge members of Congress to produce legislation that does not add to our already near-record high national debt, and to reject the use of gimmicks, including rosy economic growth assumptions, that hide its true cost.



Tax cuts do not pay for themselves; they can create growth, but in the amount of tenths of percentage points, not whole percentage points. And they certainly cannot fill in trillions in lost revenue. Relying on growth projections that no independent forecaster says will happen isn’t the way to do tax reform. Lawmakers should instead return to the principle of fiscal responsibility by enacting pro-growth tax reform that doesn’t add to the debt.

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For more information contact Patrick Newton, Press Secretary, at newton@crfb.org.