Congressman Canseco's statement on House passage of the FY2013 Budget Resolution

Washington DC – Congressman Francisco "Quico" Canseco (TX-23), a strong advocate for fiscal accountability in the House of Representatives, issued the following statement after the House of Representatives passed the FY2013 Budget Resolution:

 

“Our nation’s fiscal future was already bleak before President Obama took office. However, instead of fulfilling his promises to get spending and our debt under control, President Obama’s policies have made our fiscal and economic future even worse. Our nation’s debt is already in excess of $15 trillion – over $125,000 per American household and President Obama’s budget calls for adding an additional $11 trillion to the debt. Our nation’s spending is projected to grow dramatically under the policies we have now, and President Obama has proposed that we add $1.5 trillion more on top of it. All of this spending will either require massive, jobs-crushing tax increases to be imposed on American families and small businesses – on top of the almost $2 trillion, or over $16,000 per American household on average, in new taxes called for in President Obama’s budget – or for our nation to dramatically increase the level of debt by borrowing from our children and grandchildren’s futures. 

 

As a nation, we are truly at a fiscal crossroads. We can go down a path of more spending, more taxes, more debt that will result in our children and grandchildren inheriting a future with less freedom, less opportunity, and a downsized American Dream. Ultimately, this path will lead to fiscal and economic ruin. The other path we can take is the one that is embraced in the House of Representatives’ budget. 

 

The path the House of Representatives’ budget puts us on ensures our nation averts what has been described as “the most predictable economic crisis in our history” by putting our nation back onto a fiscally sustainable path. It cuts spending, reins in the size and scope of government, and keeps taxes low. In doing so, this preserves the building blocks of what has made the United States a truly exceptional nation. It also prevents our children from being buried under a mountain of debt, thereby ensuring that we pass on the American Dream just as limitless as what we inherited from our parents and grandparents. The House budget also ensures that our nation makes good on the promises made to future generations of Americans by saving and strengthening Medicare and Social Security – our nations’ health and retirement programs. Washington Democrats are demagoguing this proposal in the same manner they did last year – which was deemed the “Lie of the Year” by PolitiFact – and simply trying to cover up the fact that they cut Medicare by over half a trillion dollars to pay for President Obama’s health care law. The House budget also keeps taxes low, and through fundamental tax reform, will let Americans keep more of their money to spend on their priorities instead of sending it to Washington to spend on Washington’s priorities. 

 

Passage of this budget is also significant because this is the second year in a row that the House has passed a budget, while the United States Senate has passed none. In fact, the United States Senate has gone over 1,000 days since it passed a budget. You have go to back to 2009 to find the last time the United States Senate passed a budget. This failure by the United States Senate – all in the name of politics – means that the Senate is abandoning perhaps one of the most basic and necessary functions of government. As a former Chairman of the House Budget Committee John Spratt – and a Democrat – said, “if you can’t budget, you can’t govern.” 

 

Having spent over 40 years in the private sector, which included time as a small business owner, I know that putting a budget together is not easy. A budget requires you to face realities that you might not want to, and to make tough decisions that aren’t easy to make. However, I know that you cannot hope to achieve financial success as a business without a budget. Unfortunately, this commonsense wisdom seems to be lost on Washington,” concluded Congressman Canseco. 

 

 

To schedule an interview please contact Spencer Yeldell at (202) 225-4511 or Spencer.Yeldell@mail.house.gov