President Obama’s proposed $4 trillion 2016 budget landed with a thud among Congressional Republicans this week. While budget discussions between Obama and Republicans have never gone particularly smoothly, this year the GOP is wondering why the president plans to focus on new programs when he can’t even cover the costs of the country’s previous commitments.
Rep. Ted Yoho (R- Fla.) called Obama’s budget “irresponsible” in an interview with Red Alert Politics Tuesday.
“I thought it was apropos that it came out on Groundhog Day because we’ve seen this story before. Everything falls on the backs of taxpayers and we need to keep that in mind when we’re up here, knowing that every dime we spend comes from the hardworking American taxpayer. His budget does not solve any of our problems. We’re at $18 trillion in debt and it actually increases the indebtedness of this nation,” he said.
“…His budget reminds me of growing up and getting the Sears catalog from your mom at Christmas. You would make a list that was several feet long and get two of those things. And I was happy for that,” Yoho continued, noting that Obama would be lucky to get that many things off his “list.”
Obama packed more than 20 new tax increases totaling over $2 trillion into his budget. But despite the increases, it does not even start to balance the budget.
Rep. Rob Woodall (R- Ga.) though had at least one positive thing to say about the proposal.
“Let’s start with the good news. The good news is that it showed up on time. This was the first time it has showed up on time. Like so many things, the budget process is an arcane process, but it depends on receiving the president’s budget. The fact that he cared enough in his last two years to actually get the budget here on time I thought was a valuable step in the right direction,” Woodall told Red Alert. “That may be where the good news ends.”
Woodall called it a “non-starter” to highlight new programs instead of existing ones.
“He proposes $2.1 trillion in new tax increases. I think that is a bad plan for America, but if he were going to use it to get America out of debt, I would think it would at least be a defensible position. But he taxes America and instead of using it for deficit and debt reduction, he just creates brand new spending programs,” he said.
“We have a real crisis coming in this country and we cannot conquer it if we continue to make new promises in a time when we don’t even have enough money to honor the old promises.”
A lot of the tax increases would go to pay for Obama’s “free” community college program, which is expected to cost taxpayers $60 billion over the next decade.
Obama had one additional tax, a tax on 529 college savings accounts, but he backed down at the last minute at the urging of both Republicans and Democrats. Both political parties acknowledged that the 529 college savings plan tax would have hurt middle class families.
“It was a terrible idea. But I think it shows you that’s where the president’s at. He is willing to tax middle class Americans to pay for more spending,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R- Ind.) told Red Alert Politics.
“…The 529 plan, I have one, we’re saving for our two boys. It’s not growing fast enough. So when the president says he wants to tax it, I know, just like a lot of other parents, ‘Heck no. That’s a bad idea.’ I’m glad he ended up dropping the proposal, but to me it shows you where his heart was at and that he was willing to do it and that we actually need to go the opposite direction and expand opportunities for families to save for higher education. I was really pleased to see the response from Republicans and Democrats alike against this tax proposal. It just was a bad idea.”
Woodall also saw Obama’s higher education initiatives as an attack on the middle class.
“Instead of shoring up the Pell grant program to ensure that needy students are able to go to college, he proposes a middle class entitlement program. The middle class that I represent doesn’t want more freebies from the government. They just want to be more free,” Woodall said.
“They would trade freebies for freedom any day of the week. Maybe they want their kids to go to community college. Maybe they want them to go Ivy League. Maybe they want their kids to get into an apprenticeship program and become the very best welder in the state of Georgia. I don’t presuppose what Americans hopes and dreams are. But I do know that they are not dependent on a benevolent government to succeed.”
Both Republicans and the president speak about wanting the middle class to succeed when speaking about the budget. It’s the most common refrain heard in Washington these days. But they fundamentally disagree on how to go about doing that.
Yoho said that means they need to listen to the American voters and “redefine who we are as a nation.”
“That side says that the role of government is to provide for the needs of people and that individual liberties come secondary to society. Whereas, I believe in limited government, fiscal responsibility, and free enterprise, and to empower the individual, and preserve the opportunity that’s made this country great. That promotes self-reliance, independence, and personal responsibility,” he said.
Yoho said the 2014 midterms made it “loud and clear” that the American voters agreed with him.
“I would heed the president to listen to the warning he had,” he said.
Stutzman said that it doesn’t need to be an “us vs. them” scenario. He said that Republicans would love to partner on balancing the budget.
“Bill Clinton and a Republican Congress balanced a budget back in the 90s,” he said. “Obama, if he wants the same sort of reputation that Clinton has today, would be served to follow his lead and work with the Republican Congress to get to a balanced budget.”
