Saturday, July 30, 2011

HARRY 'HANDS UP' REID PROVES DEMOCRATS IN SENATE ARE FOR OBAMA AND NOT FOR AMERICA

The Reid Plan: A Blank Check to Get President Obama through the Next Election

House GOP Conference
The Reid Plan: A Blank Check to Get President Obama through the Next Election
Later today, the House is scheduled to consider the Reid plan to show it doesn’t have the votes and to convince the Senate not to waste any more time on a bill that can’t pass. We are running up against the Administration’s August 2nd deadline for action on the debt crisis, and this plan will only serve to run out the clock without providing a serious solution.


The House passed two bills – Cut, Cap and Balance and the Budget Control Act, to accomplish what we’ve been working for since day one: reduce spending more than we increase the debt limit; impose no new taxes on anyone; and guarantee House and Senate passage of a balanced budget amendment before any additional debt limit increase. What does the Reid plan accomplish?  Phantom savings, more Washington budget gimmicks, and a blank check for the president signed by the taxpayers.

Gives the President a Blank Check Through the Election: House Republicans are focused on two things: ensuring that the obligations of the federal government are paid, and saving the next generation from bankruptcy.  President Obama has been focused on one thing all along: his next election. The Obama-Reid plan would meet the demands of President Obama by handing him a $2.4 trillion blank check to continue his taxpayer-funded spending spree through his re-election. 

$1 Trillion in Phantom Spending Cuts: The Reid plan contains more than $1 trillion in imaginary “savings” from war spending that is not written into law, has never been requested, and no one plans to ever spend.  According to CBO, the Reid plan would set caps on spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan over the next ten years, which would have the impact of reducing CBO’s baseline for war spending by $1 trillion over the next ten years—but would actually cut zero dollars of real spending. 

Slashes Defense Funding:  The Reid plan would have a harmful impact on our military by slashing $868 billion in defense funding over 10 years when weighed against the President’s FY 2011 budget request.  Since the President submitted his budget, defense has already shrunk by more than $400 billion.  Americans have every right to be skeptical about whether additional savings can be found without sacrificing the capabilities needed for the full range of missions we call upon our military to perform.  The House-passed bill does significantly more than the Reid plan to preserve responsible defense funding, and allows Congress the flexibility we need to meet the needs of our men and women in uniform.

Fails to Cut More than it Hikes: In total, the president would be authorized to raise the debt limit by $2.4 trillion with no additional legislation from Congress required.  According to CBO, even if you include the $1 trillion in imaginary war savings— the bill would only reduce spending by $2.194 trillion over ten years, meaning the debt limit increase would be $216 billion beyond even the most generously calculated spending cuts in the bill.  If you exclude the phantom war savings, the bill reduces spending by $927 billion, which is nearly $1.5 trillion less than the debt limit increase.

Reid Plan May Not Even Pass the Senate:  The bill passed by the House yesterday is already a compromise; it was pre-negotiated by House GOP leaders with the bipartisan leadership of the Senate in a good faith effort to find a solution to the current crisis. Senate Democrats then walked away from it, only to debate a bill that doesn’t have a chance in the House and might not even pass the Senate.  If they are serious about solving this problem in time for the deadline, they have two House passed bills on the table, waiting to be sent to the president:  Cut, Cap and Balance and the Budget Control Act. 

For more information, please visit the BBA staff resources section at GOP.gov

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