Johanns: Obama Plan Would Deepen Budget Crisis

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) denounced the budget proposal released by the Obama Administration as a failed effort to make serious headway in confronting the country's mounting debt crisis. The President's proposal would cost American taxpayers $3.7 trillion in Fiscal Year 2012 and would yield a deficit of more than $1.1 trillion, a year after the current $1.6 trillion deficit broke the Administration's own record. Its long-term projections do not account for the costs of extending temporary programs classified as "emergency spending," for which the Obama Administration will likely advocate. "Instead of taking the initiative on reining in spending, this budget proposal would impose more than $1 trillion in new taxes, would triple our national debt in ten years, and would continue our unsustainable spending behavior after the biggest one-year deficit hike in our country's history," Johanns said. "America's debt is now equal to its GDP, and this plan makes things worse without even beginning to address the root causes of our debt crisis. It's not acceptable to nibble around the edges of our financial problems when we need to take a number of big bites. "What I find most disheartening is that the reality of this debt crisis does not seem to be acknowledged by the White House. This proposal is built on large tax increases that have been repeatedly rejected by the American public, while largely ignoring the more serious approach taken by the President's own debt commission. The Administration touts long-term savings that simply will never materialize by pretending short-term spending programs will not be extended. "Families from coast to coast have tightened their belts, but this budget suggests even more taxes on the backs of job creators instead of serious cuts in Washington. We no longer have a debt problem, but rather a debt crisis, and we need a budget that starts to resolve instead of compound it."