Every family and small business in Central Washington lives by a budget. Whether monthly or annually, we set priorities and make decisions about how we will spend the money that we have earned. Now just imagine if your family or business decided not to pay your largest expenses, like your mortgage, and add more to your credit card debts every year.
As we all know, no family or business could operate that way for long. However, this is what the President's budget request to Congress proposes. It calls for spending increases to record levels, tax hikes on families and small businesses and still adds more to our nation's debt for future generations to pay off.
The federal government currently spends more than it takes in, and President Obama's budget request would continue down that irresponsible path and increase spending by $47 trillion over the next decade, further digging our nation deeper into debt. It is time to change course by accepting that our country cannot spend its way to prosperity and adopting fiscally responsible policies that start to pay down -- instead of adding to -- our debt.
This budget proposal does nothing to create a more stable, predictable and optimistic outlook for American job creators. I often talk about uncertainty being one of the most serious obstacles that our economy faces on the path to recovery, and President Obama's budget will not allay any of those fears. Instead, President Obama calls for $1.9 trillion in new taxes to pay for spending increases -- representing the largest tax increase on small business job creators in history. Now, as our economy is struggling to recover, is the worst possible time to increase taxes on our nation's job creators.
The president promised that by the end of his first term he would cut the deficit in half. Instead, his spending policies have left the American people with our nation's first, second, third and fourth year of trillion dollar annual deficits -- and the largest debt we have had as a percentage of our economy since World War II. Not only is the debt harmful to our economy, I truly believe it is irresponsible to pass this compounding debt onto our children and grandchildren. It is time to end the lofty political rhetoric and work together to enact real reforms that truly address our debt.
In contrast to President Obama's budget request, House Republicans last year passed a budget plan that cut spending by $5.8 trillion, addressed our entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare so they will be available for future generations, and put our country on a path to pay down our debt without raising taxes on American families and job creators. Unfortunately, the U.S. Senate failed to pass our or any budget and we have now gone over 1,000 days since passing a budget. Republicans in the House of Representatives will soon introduce another common sense, pro-growth plan that provides real solutions to get our economy back on track, such as making our tax code fairer, flatter and simpler, cutting spending and reforming entitlement programs so they are available for future generations.
The reality is that increased spending, and higher taxes will not tackle the main drivers of our debt and economic hurdles. Now is the time to put our country on a path to a sound financial future and I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass a responsible budget to guide our great nation through these challenging times.