Americans across the country deal with their family budgets every day. They must! To have a financially stable household, families need to spend within their means. During these tough economic times the American people have shown that they are able to tighten their belts. Unfortunately, those in Washington – in particular Senate Democrats – have taken the opposite tack and busted the budget without proposing one of their own.
Nate Beeler / Washington Examiner (click to view more cartoons by Beeler)
It has been well over 1,000 days since Senate Democrats passed a budget for the American people. Why has it been almost three years, you may ask? The reason is pure partisan politics. Senate Democrats are fearful of losing their majority and do not want to take painful but necessary votes.
The American people want responsible action from those who represent them. It is time for Senate Democrats to work with their Republican colleagues and hammer out a fiscally sound budget. If they continue to delay, and kick the can down the road, the crisis will only get worse.
This week, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) released a bold budget plan that builds on his efforts from last year. Ryan’s plan calls for cutting $5.3 trillion in federal spending over the next ten years. To achieve this, his plan will make necessary reforms in Medicare, cut discretionary spending, freeze federal workforce pay through 2015, and cut the federal workforce by 10 percent. In addition, with a new farm bill coming down the pike, Ryan believes they can cut out subsidies as well as restructure the food stamps program. These hard but necessary reforms are a must to restore fiscal sanity in Washington for the future wellbeing of America.
Of course, Democrats in both Houses of Congress are repudiating Paul Ryan’s budget plan. Democrats and their friends in the liberal media are calling the Ryan budget a “gift” during this election season, using the same old tired talking points to scare seniors into thinking Republicans want to take away their benefits. That claim is just a lie: if you are over 55 years old the Ryan plan does not change your benefits at all. It does, however, restructure benefits for the younger generation to ensure the system hasn’t already collapsed by the time it is their turn to use them, which will happen if we don’t change course. Furthermore, the Medicare part of the budget plan is a bipartisan proposal backed by Democrat Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon.
Harry Reid and his fellow Democrats fear the Ryan proposal because it would break their hold on the welfare state by reducing discretionary spending and reforming food stamps, and hurt their union allies with its cuts to the federal workforce. Their Big Government ideology won’t allow them to do what is right for America. America is facing a $15.5 trillion debt and, instead of facing this crisis, Senate Democrats just want to look the other way and protect their special interests.
Time and again, American families sit around their kitchen tables and hammer out a budget that will not sink their household – it is time that Senate Democrats step up and do the same. However, judging by their gleeful take down of Congressman Ryan’s budget this week, any hope for fiscal responsibility and compromise on their part is fading fast.
