Enough Empty Promises

Press Release

Today Congressman Billy Long voted against Majority Leader Reid's Budget Plan, a plan that relied on phantom savings, Washington budget gimmicks, crippling defense cuts, and a taxpayer signed blank check for the President -- all designed to get Democrats past the 2012 presidential election instead of solving America's debt crisis.

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 the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (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 the CBO's baseline for war spending by $1 trillion over the next ten years--but would actually cut zero dollars of real spending.

"American's are tired of budget tricks, accounting gimmicks, and empty promises," said Long. "To quote George Will, "Why not "save" $5 trillion by proposing to spend that amount to cover the moon with yogurt and then cancel the proposal?' Americans have a right to know the truth about America's budget, and we have the responsibility to deliver it."

The Reid plan would also have a harmful impact on our military by slashing $868 billion in defense funding over 10 years when compared to the President's FY 2011 budget request. Since the President submitted his budget, defense has already shrunk by more than $400 billion. The House-passed bill does significantly more than the Reid plan to preserve defense funding to meet the needs of our men and women in uniform.

The Budget Control Act 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 compromise, only to debate a bill that doesn't have a chance in the House and might not even pass the Senate. If Democrats are serious about solving this crisis, they have two House passed bills on the table, which, if passed, could immediately be sent to the president: Cut, Cap and Balance and the Budget Control Act.

"American's have had enough," said Long. "Enough recklessness, enough wasteful Washington spending, enough piling more and more debt on our children. It's time for a common-sense, realistic approach that provides real solutions, not political theatre and campaign posturing."

Long made reducing federal spending one of his top priorities when he came to Washington.

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