Natalie Gonnella
With little substance in the President's deficit speech aside from a poorly disguised "hyper-partisan" attack on Paul Ryan's budget proposal, it’s not surprising that GOP freshmen were more than a little perturbed by the Administration's fiscal strategy "redo".
Although most appreciated the President's new found concern for the country's deficit crisis, when it came to his overall message, Washington's newest Republicans were less than impressed by his "hollow" regurgitation of irresponsible rhetoric (tax hikes, spending increases).
As ConHome’s Ryan Streeter noted in his analysis of the President’s speech:
Claiming to get serious about the deficit, and then showing that you aren’t very serious, is a pretty bad way to try winning a fight. But it’s a good way to keep pumping adrenaline into the Republican body.
And GOP newbies appear plenty energized by the President Obama's absurd attempt at a deficit reduction proposal.
With unified statements stressing both their support for Paul Ryan’s “Pathway to Prosperity,” and their continued disappointment over the Administration’s penchant for scare mongering, deficient details and partisan games, here’s a look at what a number of GOP freshmen had to say in response to the President’s fiscal “do over”:
Once again…President Obama delivered another speech that was good on rhetoric, but short on details. And for the families and job creators who are struggling to make ends meet, the President’s plan to raise taxes is simply the wrong approach. This plan puts us exactly where we were two years ago today. Small business owners still don't know what tax structure they'll face in the very near future, which is creating greater uncertainty for the future of our economy. Unfortunately, President Obama’s plan, as he said during the campaign, ‘spread the wealth’ would punish the very small businesses that fuel our economy. Washington has to do better. The President needs to lead. We need to do the right things, and do them now.
We cannot tax and spend our way to a growing economy, sustainable jobs or a prosperous future. Government can’t create wealth, it only spends it. Wealth is created when the private sector is encouraged and empowered to invest; simply doubling down on the failed status quo and promising tax hikes on job creators is not the answer, unfortunately that’s all we heard from the President today.
What the President calls ‘savings’ won’t scratch the surface of our annual deficit and, without a plan to balance the budget, the President continues to increase the national debt to unfathomable and irresponsible levels, which threatens our future prosperity...The President completely ignores Social Security’s contribution to the deficit in the coming years. Most disappointing is that the President no longer believes tax relief is important to protect our economic recovery...This is not just a political flip-flop. It’s a reversal that will create greater instability in our economy and threaten to turn around the small gains we’ve made in employment...His speech today shows he is simply not serious about real deficit reduction.
Today’s speech by the President on this issue is a welcome development. But with all due respect, some of his ideas would take us in the wrong direction. As we prepare to have a debate on our economy in general and our debt in specific, we should be guided by three key principles. First, we have to create jobs. We have to grow our economy. We cannot do anything that would scare job creators and keep them from creating jobs...Second, we need to takes steps now to save Medicare and invest in our national security...And third, we must undertake reforms that show we are serious about solving our dangerous debt problem...America is still the greatest country in the world. But it won’t be for much longer if we don’t solve the debt problem we have. And we are running out of time to act.
I am glad to see the House has gotten the President's attention on the impending debt crisis and glad he has finally decided to talk about it. Unfortunately, his plan includes more out-of-control spending, tripling the debt in 10 years and job-killing tax increases. The House budget reduces spending responsibly, and saves Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security for future generations. We need bold leadership, and if the President won't lead, we will.
While I am pleased President Obama has acknowledged the budget he put forward in February failed to address the nation’s looming fiscal crisis, I continue to be disappointed by the lack of specific proposals from the President to fix our staggering debt and deficit. His budget plan was a political document that called for more spending and rejected the serious recommendations of his own Fiscal Commission, which set a deficit reduction goal of more than $4 trillion over 10 years. This goal should be the standard for any serious plan to reduce the deficit.
I am highly disappointed that the President’s plan to reduce the deficit is based on raising taxes on families and small businesses that create jobs and calls for yet more spending. President Obama’s approach is full of budget gimmicks, accounting tricks, and empty promises that leads to further dependence on the federal government. In addition, it does nothing to address the underlying cause of our current and future deficits...The status quo is irresponsible, unsustainable, and has added almost $5 trillion to the national debt under the Obama Administration.
In a telling lack of leadership, President Obama back-pedalled publicly and then offered a second set of ‘solutions’ that still fail to seriously rise to our urgent financial challenges. This time, the President admonished some Americans for becoming too prosperous and quickly followed that with a proposal to raise taxes on our job creators. The President’s re-boot of the Democrats’ failed tax-and-spend solutions would disproportionately hit small businesses thereby blunting the job creation they provide and slowing economic growth.
[T]he President once again used scare tactics and fear-mongering while Republicans listened to the hard-working taxpayers, delivered common-sense, responsible solutions to addressing our debt-driven economic crisis, and fought for the American people against the President’s reckless agenda that has put our future generations further in debt. We can all wonder why the President did not tackle the deficit in his first two years in office and we can all hope that change is coming. However, it is clear the President is following not leading; but following us is better than failing America.
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