Fiscal Responsibility
Over the years, Democrats have shown our commitment to restoring fiscal responsibility by taking actions that have reduced our national deficit while investing in the American people’s priorities. During the 117th Congress, House Democrats delivered the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, which will reduce the deficit by over $300 billion while lowering health care and energy costs and taking action on climate change. In sharp contrast, Republicans jammed their 2017 Trump Tax Scam through Congress without a single hearing, gifting trillions of dollars in unpaid-for tax handouts to the wealthiest Americans and large corporations while leaving our nation with ballooning deficits. They have repeatedly held our economy hostage to benefit their irresponsible ideological agenda, whether creating artificial “fiscal cliffs,” shutting down the government, or bringing our nation to the brink of defaulting on its obligations. With other landmark legislation delivered during the 117th Congress, including the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the CHIPS and Science Act, Democrats have worked to invest in economic recovery, job creation, all while cutting the deficit in half last year. Democrats are committed to continuing our work to restore sound, long-term fiscal management so future generations can afford to invest in opportunities, secure the American Dream, and ensure workers have the tools to Make It In America.
Today’s op-ed by Speaker Boehner and Leader Cantor is pretty remarkable for several reasons. First, they’re already taking revenues off the table before the Joint Committee has even begun its work. And second, they’re completely incorrect in suggesting that Democrats agree that we should tackle entitlement reform while leaving revenues off the table:
This afternoon, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi announced that she has selected Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn, Democratic Caucus Vice Chair Xavier Becerra, and Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen to represent House Democrats on the joint bipartisan committee on deficit reduction. Reps. Clyburn, Becerra, and Van Hollen will bring to the process a strong grasp of the issues confronting our budget and a strong commitment to standing up for the needs of middle-class Americans while bringing our deficit under control and working to create jobs. I'm confident they will represent the views of our caucus and work diligently to reach a balanced agreement that will reduce the deficit and put our nation back on a fiscally sustainable path.
House Republicans have walked away from deficit reduction talks multiple times, but will they walk away from the Joint Committee before Congressional leaders have even appointed members to the Committee?
While there are clearly some legitimate concerns with S&P’s analysis, I share the President’s view that the greatest barrier to restoring our fiscal health is not economic—it is political. We can put our fiscal house in order when leaders in Washington are willing to put politics aside and take fiscally responsible action in the national interest. And Americans have long known that a fiscal solution must be balanced in order to be effective; in fact, just such a solution was proposed by the president’s bipartisan fiscal commission, led by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. If partisan actors continue to reject a comprehensive solution and pursue their ideological agenda at all costs, then the world will continue to doubt America’s fiscal seriousness. But if the joint committee on the deficit and leaders in Washington agree to put all of the causes of our deficit on the table, including both spending and revenue, then we can return our nation to fiscal health and strengthen confidence in our economy.
Last week Republicans returned to their districts and were “shocked” to hear that job creation was the dominant issue constituents wanted to discuss. Since taking the House majority, Republicans have said that job creation would be a top priority. Unfortunately they’ve taken little action on jobs.
After more than 200 days in the majority, House Republicans have taken little action on jobs and have still not put forward a comprehensive jobs agenda. Meanwhile, Democrats have been focused on our Make It In America plan – a plan to support job creation by providing an environment for businesses to innovate and make products here in the U.S., which will help more families Make It In America. The Make It In America plan is an agenda that both Democrats and Republicans can, and have, supported. But rather than work with us on our plan to revitalize American industry and create well-paying, middle-class jobs, Republicans have focused on passing bills that support their partisan agenda rather than actually helping create jobs and grow the economy.
This morning, we received news that our economy added 154,000 private-sector jobs in the month of July; with layoffs of public employees factored in, we added 117,000 net jobs. It is encouraging that our private sector has added jobs for 17 straight months, and that our economy has come a long way from the days, at the beginning of President Obama's term, when it was losing 700,000 jobs per month. But today's report is still unsatisfactory for the millions of Americans who remain unemployed and for the millions more waiting to feel the effects of economic recovery. Clearly, we must do more.
As Leader Reid has pointed out today, almost 4,000 federal employees, and some 70,000 workers for contractors around this country are being held captive. They are out on the street because Republicans have refused to work with us to find common ground. The FAA shutdown will jeopardize $11 billion in construction projects. It will cost more than $200 million per week. It has already cost us $360 million. This is from the party that is worried about fiscal responsibility. Furloughs of thousands of people of critical aviation engineers, safety analysts, and key personnel—we owe it to these workers to come together and reach a compromise. We owe it to every American taxpayer to come together and reach a compromise. We need to get this done, and we should get it done today.
Let me suggest at the outset that talking about jobs is talking about debt. The only way to successfully deal with our debt is to create jobs and economic growth in America. After seven months there has not been a single jobs bill--that is the negligent record of the Republicans.
Today, the Senate passed legislation ensuring that our nation will pay the bills it has incurred and avoid a default on its debt, which would have been an economic catastrophe. It also cuts spending by $1.2 trillion and establishes a bipartisan committee tasked with agreeing by year’s end on an additional $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction. Democrats worked hard to make sure that this agreement preserves Medicare and Social Security, protects Medicaid and other programs for the most vulnerable, and phases in cuts over the next decade to minimize harm to our economic recovery.