Hoyer Statement on House Republican Budget for Fiscal Year 2016

WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today in response to the House Republican budget for Fiscal Year 2016:

“The budget resolution released today by Chairman Tom Price and House Republicans is long on rhetoric but short on solutions to pressing economic and fiscal problems.  It is unrealistic, unserious, and unworkable.  This year, it continues the dangerous sequester cap on domestic spending that limits our long-term investment, and it cuts even further below that cap over the next several years. It also makes use of gimmicks to pretend to adhere to the sequester cap on defense spending this year, while actually blowing past that cap through an uncapped increase in Pentagon funding to the overseas contingency operations account.

“The Republican budget resolution once again asks the most vulnerable Americans to carry the burden of deficit reduction by cutting trillions of dollars from safety net programs like Medicaid and nutrition assistance.  It avoids the tough decisions necessary to reform our tax code and continues Republicans' quixotic crusade to strip access to affordable health care from millions of Americans who need it. 

“We ought to be partnering to identify ways to promote economic growth through investments in education, research, and infrastructure. We ought to be seeking a bipartisan approach to tax reform that provides certainty to American businesses in an increasingly competitive global economy.  

“Republicans instead offer a budget that is little more than a messaging tool to their base. I hope, moving forward, that Republicans will work with Democrats to find meaningful compromise to invest in our nation’s future.”