Lewis Welcomes Obama Administration Budget Ideas…. Finally

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Obama Administration today will release its fiscal year 2010 budget request to Congress – almost four months behind schedule. In the meantime, Congress has already completed its own budget resolution and work on appropriations bills – annual legislation that funds the federal government – has already begun.

 

House Appropriations Ranking Republican Jerry Lewis welcomed President Obama’s budget request:

 

“It is disappointing that the Obama Administration’s failure to submit its own budget request until today has led to the President’s disengagement from any real budget work. The Congress has now passed its own budget, and our annual appropriations process has begun. I welcome President Obama’s late arrival to this party, and I look forward to having a full round of true budget hearings on the President’s proposals as we continue to craft the FY 2010 appropriations bills.”

 

“Today the Appropriations Committee is considering the fiscal year 2009 emergency war supplemental – a piece of legislation that the President requested. It would have been productive to have had President Obama’s FY 2010 budget request before consideration of this supplemental so that Congress and the American people could know how the Administration proposes to continue future support for our troops.  But, in its absence, the Committee has come up with a good overall bill – save for a few items of concern – that will adequately fund our military and other national emergencies.

 

“President Obama’s suggestions for reining in spending are appreciated – especially given the rampant and debilitating spending by this Administration and Democrats in Congress so far this year. However, the President’s ideas focus solely on discretionary spending – which is only about a third of the total federal budget – while the most devastating and unsustainable growth is in mandatory federal spending such as Social Security and Medicare. Congress can and must scale back out of control mandatory spending if we are going to truly address our nation’s ballooning debt and impending budget crisis.