A Message from David

Statement

This past week was the battle of the budgets. We started off the week by finishing a budget for the rest of FY2011 and ended today by passing the FY2012 budget in the House of Representatives.

On Thursday, I voted against a short-term continuing resolution that will fund the federal government through the end of FY2011. I did not believe that the mere $39 billion in spending cuts brought us close enough to the fiscal responsibility we need to get our economy back on the path to prosperity.

This was also the first continuing resolution brought to the House floor this year that did not achieve the $100 billion level of spending reductions that Republicans had pledged.

I believe we have a duty to be unwavering in our commitment to get Washington back on the right track, but unfortunately, I could not vote for the continuing resolution because it did not go far enough to accomplish these goals.

However, a huge victory was gained this week when President Obama was brought into this adult conversation. I applaud Republican leadership who finally forced the president to the negotiating table during this debate.

President Obama broke an Administration taboo this week by admitting we have a problem with the size and cost of government. He also was forced to walk back his previous positions on spending cuts and address entitlements. President Obama can no longer sit on the sidelines and ignore a problem that he bears major responsibility for causing.

Today, I voted for a commonsense budget proposal for FY2012, proposed by my colleague Paul Ryan, that will go leaps and bounds to cut spending and reform entitlements. After years of double-digit spending growth, we are finally decreasing Washington spending and making the hard decisions necessary to get our country back on the road to prosperity.

We are changing the conversation in Washington from raising taxes and growing government to limiting government and preserving economic freedom.

I will continue to keep up the fight to cut spending at the scale we need. We can do better and we must do better for our children and grandchildren.

This Saturday and Monday, I am hosting two community listening session events. Information on both is on my website http://schweikert.house.gov/. I hope to see you all there!

Sincerely,

David Schweikert
Member of Congress

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