Hearing of the Senate Finance Committee - The President's FY2013 Budget Proposals
Statement
U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, today questioned U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner at a committee hearing on President Obama's Fiscal Year 2013 budget proposal, released yesterday. The President's budget calls projects $3.8 trillion in spending and $2.9 trillion in revenues for Fiscal Year 2013, leaving a deficit of $901 billion. It also projects that gross federal debt would climb from $16.351 trillion currently to $25.940 trillion by 2022, an increase of nearly $10 trillion. Senator Snowe specifically asked Secretary Geithner about the impact that uncertainty in the administration's policies have on our nation's entrepreneurs.
Senator Snowe said:
"This Administration has failed to produce a sustainable, credible debt reduction plan, realistic tax or regulatory reform proposals, or a meaningful budget that calls for anything but more than a trillion dollars in additional indebtedness. Washington has not created an environment of confidence, which is represented in the president's budget request, and this uncertainty is stymieing a robust economic recovery. Indeed, a recent poll found that 84 percent of small businesses said the size of the national debt makes them uncertain about the future of their business.
"As I said yesterday, at a time when our overall debt has surpassed our entire economic output, the President should have proposed a budget that, at the very least, addresses some of our core fiscal problems. But, once again, he punted. As the Los Angeles Times noted this morning, "President Obama released a budget proposal for the coming fiscal year that offers no real solution to the United States' long-term fiscal problems.' At the end of the day, the President's budget does little to reduce the size and scope of the federal government, decrease our nation's debt and deficit, or put our nation on the road to economic growth and job creation that will help the nearly 13 million Americans presently unemployed find work."
Source