Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) during a Budget Committee markup on Thursday grilled two Democrat staffers over the budget proposed by Senate Democrats.
The Democrat budget — unveiled on Tuesday by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) — supposedly includes “$1.85 trillion in total deficit reduction, $960 billion of which consists of a full and balanced replacement of the cuts from sequestration,” according to Sen. Sessions’ office.
However, as Sen. Sessions argues, “it is not possible to apply tax increases and spending cuts simultaneously to both deficit reduction and replacing the sequester.”
“What you said in your document — the budget that you submitted, and the Chair said in her opening statement… ‘The Senate budget, therefore, includes $1.85 trillion in total deficit reduction, $960 billion of which consists of a full and balanced replacement of the cuts from sequestration,’” said the Alabama senator.
“Can you honestly say that under this budget, you can achieve $1.85 trillion in deficit reduction and eliminate the sequester with only $975 billion in new taxes?” he asked.
“No,” John Righter, Democratic deputy staff director on the Senate budget committee, responded:
“In other words, turning off the sequester amounts to an immediate spending increase of $1.2 trillion,” the office of Sen. Sessions argues.
“Although Senate Democrats claim around $1.9 trillion in deficit reduction, they are double-counting more than half of that money. Their actual deficit reduction is closer to $700 billion, and even this figure is inflated by the use of a war savings gimmick. Honestly accounted, real deficit reduction is only around $300 billion–virtually no change from our disastrous debt course,” his office added.
Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) reemerged on the national scene Tuesday after he unveiled the House Republicans’ 2014 budget proposal.
The GOP budget, according to Rep. Ryan, isn’t just about cutting spending. Rather, he says it’s about lowering the rate of spending by approximately $5 trillion over the course of a decade,TheBlaze noted earlier this week.
The GOP budget would also create two tax brackets, reducing the tax burden for many Americans, and it calls for the repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (i.e. “Obamacare”).
For its part, the budget drafted by Senate Democrats calls for roughly $1 trillion in tax revenues.
Here’s a chart that simplifies the difference between the two budgets:
Courtesy the Washington Post
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/03/14/let-me-ask-the-question-again-gop-sen-grills-dem-staffers-over-budget-proposal/
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