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Require A Plan

By: Congressman Tom Price (Diary)  |  February 6th, 2013 at 03:44 PM  | 

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Update by Erick: The legislation passed 253-167 with 26 Democrats voting in favor of it.

Republicans are the minority party in Washington. We don’t run the Democrat-controlled Senate and we don’t control the White House. Part of our responsibility to the country, as the minority party, is to hold the majority accountable and provide a positive contrast in policy. Nonetheless, House Republicans have taken a leading role and have been unwavering in our commitment to solving the nation’s fiscal challenges through sensible, pro-growth policies and long-term reforms. We believe it is only fair that the Democrat majority in the Senate and President Obama bring to the table a similar level of commitment and a plan to solve those challenges.

House Republicans were successful last month in pressuring the Senate to finally agree to pass a budget, but it took threatening to withhold their pay to make it happen. Today, with the Require a PLAN Act, we are taking an additional measure in order to ensure that whenever President Obama decides to finally submit his budget to Congress, that he proposes a way to balance the budget; something worthy of the extraordinary fiscal crisis facing our nation.

We live in extraordinarily challenging times. Our national debt exceeds $16 trillion, nearly $6 trillion of which was added under the current administration in a single term. President Obama has also overseen four straight years of trillion-dollar-plus federal budget deficits. All of this comes as we have seen anemic economic growth and lackluster job creation leaving millions of Americans without work.

The American people are demanding action now because they overwhelmingly reject the rampant fiscal irresponsibility in Washington. They have demanded time and time again that Washington get serious about the tremendous fiscal challenges threatening the future of our nation. The American people understand that it is a moral responsibility that we do everything in our power to preserve and protect the American Dream for our children and our grandchildren. Having a budget is one of the most basic obligations of government, and it is essential to putting us on a path to paying off the national debt, fostering free enterprise, harnessing the innovative spirit of the American people in fields like energy production, and protecting the guarantees of Medicare and Social Security for our seniors.

Now, the White House has – yet again – missed the legal deadline to propose its annual budget. Since the President is intent on taking this extra time, we don’t think it’s unreasonable for us to expect President Obama to present a plan that brings our federal budget into balance – at some point in the future. That’s all the Require a PLAN Act would do. If the president’s original budget submission does not balance, then he ought to offer us – and more importantly, the American people – a plan that shows what it would take for his budget to actually balance and when.

The Require a PLAN Act gives President Obama the opportunity to finally acknowledge that chasing ever higher spending with ever higher taxes will never solve the problem. Perhaps, the administration will recognize what the American people have known all along – that our spending-driven debt crisis is threatening the future of this country, diminishing the prospects of opportunity and prosperity for future generations. Perhaps, the White House and Senate Democrats will work with House Republicans to advance positive solutions that secure the American Dream for future generations while keeping the promises made to our seniors.

House Republicans will continue to demonstrate real leadership by putting forward plans to balance the nation’s budget and get our fiscal house in order, so that the economy can begin to thrive, more jobs can be created, and more dreams realized. But we can’t ultimately solve these challenges alone. Saving our country will take good ideas and good will from folks across the political spectrum. It must start now.

The first step is showing up. House Republicans have and will continue to responsibly govern. Today, we call on the President to do the same.

COMMENTS

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  • http://www.TerriersOfTheRight.blogspot.com Flagstaff

    Partly true, but a plan to reach a balanced budget would foster an atmosphere in which the confidence necessary to invest in growth rather than in self-defense can build.

  • GreyCloak

    Honorable Representative Price: The President submitted a budget last year. It was rejected by the [mostly] Democat Senate 99-1, and your House voted almost as much against it. NO President’s budget has been accepted by Congress for decades. Instead, ONLY CONGRESS has the Constitutional authority to “lay and collect Taxes, … pay the Debts andprovide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States.” YOU and your colleagues (of both Parties) got us into this mess, for only you have had the authority and responsibility for over 200 years.

    Please do your enumerated jobs. Please put purely political (and re-election) rancor aside. And should you once again propose a “balanced budget amendment,” please do not tie it to some mythical GDP or other measure that can be manipulated. Make it simple:

    “Except in time of war as declared by Congress, the Congress shall not appropriate nor the Executive authorize the expenditure of funds in any year in excess of receipts in the amount of Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises collected in the previous year.”

    Y’all haven’t declared a war in over seventy years. I’m sure that is of great consolation to those tens of thousands who have died to protect your offices since

  • commonsenseobserver

    I think I can assure you that Rep. Tom Price is not a zombie who has been romaing about for two centuries, if that’s what you mean.

    Congressman Price is among the members of Congress who haved stepped forward with actual solutions, but while Congress and the White House usually disagree, at the end of the day, there must be presidential leadership to overcome our challenges.

  • texashistorian

    It will only force his hand if it passes the Senate and survives a veto, of course. What are the odds Harry Reid allows it to the floor for a vote? Or that Obama would sign it? It’s still a good tactical move, I think, and is the sort of thing the House should be doing each and every week they are in sessions.

  • commonsenseobserver

    There’s no way to force Obama’s hand unless we demand it to avoid a government shutdown, which isn’t coming till budget season.

  • cheesycon

    I guess I disagree that there is any value in this at all, since there are certainly things that the House GOP should be doing to persuade and make our case and draft policy alternatives instead of making useless gestures. Average Joe doesn’t read RS or watch CSPAN and will have no idea about this “tactical move” at all. Just a waste of time and an illusion of action or maybe just an excuse for inaction.

  • cheesycon

    and probably not even then, given GOP leadership tendency to tuck tail

  • plh

    Yes, it’s the House that needs to stand firm and appropriate reasonable sums in separate bills for essential services only and let the Senate reject or President veto them if they dare. So if there’s a shutdown and they try to blame the Republicans, the answer can be: we funded it, they refused to. And for gosh sakes, stop funding Obamacare!

  • texashistorian

    you could certainly be right- this congress doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in me, but it could be a good strategy if they are willing to be a great deal more proactive in not allowing themselves to be ignored. So far, over the past few years, they have not done a good job of that.

  • GreyCloak

    I am sure that Representative Price is an honorable man. The Congress to which he belongs may or may not have been zombies, but the institution and its members have been around for over two hundred years. The body continues, the members change.

    I disagree that there must be “presidential leadership.” Congress may have passed the Budget Act of 1921, but The Constitution clearly lays the responsibility for revenues and expenditures with Congress, not the Executive. Its 1789 ratification might be considered to take precedence over a 1921 law that requires budgets to outline eventual tax and spending bills. Budgets are not binding.

    I’m sure that requesting the President to submit a balanced budget or explanation of why it is not balanced is a nice political venture, but it once again abrogates Congress’ responsibilities.

    I would rather suggest that Representative Price step forward with an actual solution: proposing adoption of the FY2006 actual expenditures for FY2014. That year’s expenditures would be funded by this year’s receipts, and I am no better off relative to the Federal governmet than I was in 2006. Besides, FY2006 was the first budget on which Representative Price voted.

  • GreyCloak

    Since tax bills can only originate in the House, leadership can say “this is how much we’re willing to take from our constituents, no more.”

    The House and Senate will have to work together to define “this is how much we will spend of The People’s money, and that of their children.”

    As a start, perhaps every Congress critter should be required to pay off the debts they have laid on their own children and grand-children, before they add another penny to that burden.