Republicans had nothing good to say about President Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget, which the top House appropriator called “a spending wish list that doesn’t reflect our real budgetary constraints and that would saddle hard-working Americans with additional taxes and fees.”
Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., promised to “scrutinize” Obama’s spending request. That’s more than the president can expect from the House and Senate Budget Committees, which announced last week they won’t even hold a hearing on the proposal.
Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., called the president’s plan “irresponsible” and said it would raise spending $2.5 trillion and increase taxes by $3.4 trillion in the next decade. The national debt, Price said, would “more than double” its size since Obama took office in 2009.
The House is working on its own budget proposal that is expected to reduce spending growth and tackle entitlement costs. Republicans plan on holding hearings on their budget proposal by the end of February.
“Republicans in Congress are developing a bold and practical agenda that will fix our underperforming economy, prepare us to face the rising threats of terrorism at home and abroad, and increase opportunity for those stuck in poverty,” Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said. “Our country doesn’t need more empty political posturing like the president’s budget.”
Democrats have blasted a decision by House and Senate budget leaders to skip the traditional hearing on the president’s budget with his director of the Office of Management and Budget.
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., called the GOP’s move “a striking break with tradition that is rooted not in expediency but in partisanship.” He called on the Republicans to “rectify their error by working with Democrats … to craft a budget.”
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Obama’s budget “deserves praise for putting the middle class first, investing in our future, restoring fiscal discipline and asking millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share.”
