The President’s Budget Lacks Leadership

Today, Congressman Ken Calvert issued the following statement in response to the release of President Obama's Fiscal Year 2015 Budget:

"The American people don't elect Presidents to sit on the sidelines. Yet once again, President Obama has sent a budget to Congress that lacks leadership and fails to seriously address the mounting and obvious sources of our national debt. In fact, the President's budget increases spending by $791 billion over the budget window, adding $8.3 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years.

In the absence of meaningful reform, our mandatory spending programs continue to consume more and more of our federal budget. More than six out of every ten dollars our government spends now goes towards mandatory programs. As a result of this growth there is increased pressure to reduce spending on our discretionary programs, like our military, or to try to raise taxes on American families.

The cuts to our military outlined by Defense Secretary Hagel and contained in the budget recklessly shift the burden of our debt crisis on to our men and women in uniform. There is no doubt that the Defense Department budget, like any agency, has areas where cost savings can be found. For example, I have and I will continue to push the Pentagon leadership to examine the size and structure of the civilian workforce as well as streamlining the procurement process. However, in a world in which potential threats exist on many fronts, it is simply irresponsible to drastically scale back our investments that maintain our military power, especially since the DOD has already significantly reduced its budget

As a member of the House Budget Committee, I look forward to working with Chairman Ryan and the rest of my colleagues to address our fiscal challenges. I plan on advocating for an approach that protects American taxpayers by balancing the budget, maintains our national security, and ensures the survival of our mandatory safety-net programs by bending their long-term cost curves."