The Senate Budget Is Not Responsible

For Immediate Release

Today the Senate released a budget resolution that will pave the way for tax reform. The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

This budget allows for $1.5 trillion in deficit-financed tax cuts, abandons the idea of getting mandatory savings, and engages in the classic Washington pastime of trying to hide it all with accounting gimmicks. For months, Republican leaders have talked about revenue-neutral tax reform, and through this budget they have seemingly abandoned that promise and replaced it with a plan that could easily lead to more spending, more borrowing, and a higher debt.

At a time when the national debt is at near-record levels, a budget that not only fails to make improvements, but would actually make the debt worse, is nothing short of highly irresponsible.

The argument being made that this massive hole in the budget will be filled in with magical economic growth is even more frightening. Tax cuts do not pay for themselves and the President’s suggestion that we can achieve 6% economic growth, or his economic team’s assertion of sustained growth above 3%, goes against the projections of economists and independent forecasters from across the spectrum.

While this budget claims to reduce the deficit, those claims assume a huge amount of unspecified savings with no teeth behind them. It does not provide for action on any actual spending cuts, either to reduce the deficit or offset tax cuts.

At the same time, including no instructions for mandatory savings is a shocking omission from a party that has rightly been pointing out the need to control spending and reform our largest entitlements for years.

We encourage the Senate to look to the House Budget Committee, which passed a budget calling for revenue-neutral tax reform and at least $200 billion of mandatory spending cuts on top of that through reconciliation.

We need smart tax reform that grows the economy without adding to the debt, along with mandatory spending reforms to help curb our unsustainable spending — this is not what this budget provides. This budget is a roadmap leading us in the wrong direction.

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