By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Congressman Spencer Bachus (R) from Vestavia say balancing the budget is the moral thing to do following the approval of a House budget resolution for Fiscal Year 2014.
Rep. Bachus said, “If you don’t have a plan, you have little chance of achieving your goal. Restoring fiscal responsibility in Washington must include a balanced budget. Families have to live within a budget and states like Alabama are constitutionally required to balance their budgets. The plan passed by the House sets a path to balancing the federal budget in ten years, reforms entitlement programs, and defunds Obamacare. In contrast, the plan being considered by the Senate would raise taxes by a trillion dollars and never balance the budget while the President hasn’t even submitted a budget yet.”
Representative Bachus concluded, “Balancing the budget is not only the right thing to do. It is the moral thing to do so that we do not pass our debts along to our children and grandchildren. We honor the Greatest Generation for the sacrifices that it made to build a better country for all of us. The small sacrifices we would have to make as Americans to balance the budget and set our country on a more stable and prosperous financial course pales in comparison.”
Speaker of the House John Boehner said, “Well, we got a letter from 180 economists saying that spending is the problem, and that by reducing spending and putting us on a firmer fiscal path, we will give confidence to the economy and help grow the economy. And that’s really the whole point, and this is where the president and I have a big disagreement. He thinks that federal spending helps spur the economy. But he doesn’t realize that we’re also running up deficits and debts that dampen economic activity.”
Boehner said, “Our budget balances in 10 years and has no increase in taxes. Their budget has a trillion dollars worth of tax increases and never balances. … And the president says ‘well, my goal isn’t to balance the budget just for the sake of balancing the budget.’ So it’s going to be very difficult to reconcile this spending issue until people would recognize that at some point, you can’t continue to spend money you don’t have.” “Right now, I think our spending is out of control, our debt is too large, and it’s going to imperil the future for our kids and our grandkids. …. I’ve watched leaders for 22 years kick this can down the road, kick it down the road and never want to deal with it, because it’s hard. Well, I made up my mind two years ago. We are not going to kick the can down the road. We are going to deal with our spending problem.”
2013 will likely be the fifth year in a row that the federal government has spent a $ trillion more than it takes in. This unprecedented period of massive government spending has grown the national debt to $16,739 billion.
Congressmen Bachus and Mo Brooks (R) from Huntsville introduced a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution at the start of this.
Congressman Spencer Bachus represents Alabama’s Sixth Congressional District.
