Cleveland Plain Dealer: House GOP Budget Offers Real Expanded Opportunities For American Families

Op-Ed

By: John Boehner

Middle-class families and small businesses today want their leaders in Washington focused on real solutions to create growth and new opportunities, but President Barack Obama isn't delivering.

Instead the president is offering the same top-down policies that have failed in the past -- policies like those in his budget, which includes a 65 percent increase in spending over 10 years on the backs of taxpayers, more than $2 trillion in new taxes on working families, and piling on $8.5 trillion in new debt on our kids and grandkids.

Remarkably, President Obama calls this approach "middle-class economics" and he's been pushing it at public campaign-style stops across the country -- including Cleveland last week.

But even liberals in Washington, D.C., aren't buying it. Not when the Tax Policy Center confirms the president's plan will actually raise taxes on the 20 percent of Americans making between $49,086 and $85,055 per year, Obamacare is raising premiums and health care costs, and Gallup says as many as 30 million Americans remain unemployed or underemployed. Only one Democrat in the Senate was willing to stand up and vote for the president's budget on Tuesday.

In Cleveland and across Ohio, folks know just how tough these last seven years have been. High energy prices, rising food prices, and a difficult jobs market have hurt countless families.

And the scars still run deep. Though there's no doubt Ohio is now on the path to recovery, thanks to the leadership of statewide and local leaders, like elsewhere in America, many middle-class families now earn less than when President Obama took office.

If we're going to truly bring about the growth America needs, Washington can't just slap a new slogan on the same old approach. Bold new reforms are needed to unleash the potential of the American people and expand opportunities for everyone, and the House of Representatives continues to lead the way.

Take the budget. In stark contrast to the president's budget, which never, ever balances, House Republicans passed a pro-growth balanced budget this week. It addresses the government's spending problem head-on, and paves the way for job creation, a simpler and fairer tax code -- and it protects critical programs like Medicare and Social Security.

And Thursday, the House voted overwhelmingly to replace one of Washington's most infamous gimmicks, Medicare's Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula, with a more stable system that rewards quality and innovation. This permanent SGR solution is a big win for the American people and represents the first real entitlement reform in decades. It will help ensure that seniors have access to their doctor, put in place a stronger Medicare program to aid every American trying to care for elderly parents, and provide hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars of durable savings for taxpayers over the long term.

These critical Medicare reforms now move to the Senate, and I'm pleased President Obama has said he's ready to sign our bill, as he did our bill to help prevent veteran suicides. I also hope the president will take another look at our other bipartisan House-passed bills, including jobs measures that would approve the Keystone XL pipeline, restore the 40-hour work week to help small businesses grow and hire, and expand natural gas exports.

In the House of Representatives, we've had a strong first 100 days of 2015, and we're just getting started. We'll continue to listen to the American people and do what's right for the country, not what's easy.

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