The Burton Blog

Burton Opposes Sham Deficit Reduction Deal

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Dan Burton (R-IN-05) issued the following statement after the House of Representatives' approved the deficit reduction deal negotiated with President Obama and Senate Democrats:

"Our nation has never defaulted in its history and we must take action to continue to meet our financial obligations.  However, in good conscience I could not support the deficit reduction package worked out this past weekend.  I have said repeatedly that Washington does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem and this bill does nothing to change the spending culture ingrained in Washington."

“First, A Balanced Budget Amendment is the ONLY way to finally force Washington to live within its means.  However, unlike the Cut, Cap and Balance Act or the Boehner proposal passed by the House of Representatives, the deficit reduction deal does not require a Balanced Budget Amendment be sent to the States for ratification before the President is granted a debt ceiling increase; it merely requires a vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment.  Passing a Balanced Budget Amendment requires a 2/3rds vote in the House and Senate and a majority of Democrats have already expressed opposition to a Balanced Budget Amendment, so obtaining the necessary votes without significant leverage - such as the threat of default - is highly unlikely;

“Second, the deficit reduction deal does not prevent future tax increases or reduce the size of government.   In fact, the deficit reduction deal assumes that all the Bush tax cuts expire in December 2012.  In other words the additional revenue is already built into the bill which would make it difficult if not impossible to meet the deficit reduction targets AND extend the Bush tax cuts beyond 2012.  In addition, the suggestion that it is impossible for the Joint Committee to raise additional tax revenue simply is not accurate, it's false;

“Third, the automatic spending cuts placed in the deal to force Congress to maintain fiscal discipline are unrealistic and unworkable.  Half of the proposed automatic cuts would come from defense programs which will undermine our ability to project power, strengthen our adversaries, and weaken our alliances.  Additional automatic cuts will come from Medicare providers; already underpaid by Medicare.  Historically Congress has rolled back any proposed cuts to Medicare providers and there is no reason to believe Congress won't do so again.  It is also unrealistic to believe Congress will allow substantial cuts to defense spending while our troops are engaged in three wars (Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya);

“Finally, the deficit reduction deal may be unconstitutional.  The deficit reduction deal allows the President to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling subject to a resolution of disapproval by the Congress (which the President can veto).  The debt limit is a statutory requirement and must therefore be changed by law.   ONLY Congress has the power to make law not the President; and Congress cannot, and most importantly should not, surrender this power to the president.

“The American people want a solution to this crisis, not a deal that allows Washington to kick the can down the road once again. Regrettably, the deficit reduction deal is not that solution.”

Rep. Burton Votes Against Harry Reid’s Blank Check to President Obama

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN-05) issued the following statement after voting against Senator Harry Reid’s debt ceiling proposal:

“The White House and Congressional Democrats have brought this country to the brink of fiscal collapse because they refuse to accept that Washington doesn't have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.  No grand bargain was ever close, but in the last two weeks, the House has sent the Senate two bills that would have allowed for a debt ceiling increase, but without a needless increase in spending or higher taxes.  Additionally, earlier this year, the House sent the Senate a budget that could have avoided this whole mess.  Meanwhile, the President continues to offer no plan of his own and Harry Reid cobbled together a plan that even the Congressional Budget Office said was loaded with gimmicks and cuts to our fighting men and women overseas. 

“We are reaching the point of no return and while negotiations in Washington could lead to a deadline deal, Americans want a solution.  They want Washington’s out of control spending cut and capped, they don’t want to see their taxes increased and 75% of Americans favor a Balanced Budget Amendment; three basic principles in the House bills.  If every American family and business as well as 49 out of 50 states have to live within their means, then so should Washington.“

Rep. Burton Applauds House Passage of Cut, Cap and Balance

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN-05) issued the following statement after the House of Representatives approved H.R. 2560 the Cut, Cap and Balance Act of 2011:

“I have said it time and again; Washington doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. Today, the House has taken an important and critical step towards getting our economy back on track and our Nation’s fiscal House in order.  The House Republican Cut, Cap and Balance Plan immediately rolls back the Obama Administration's unprecedented spending spree; sets enforceable caps on spending going forward and clears the way for Congressional passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution which will prevent Washington from ever running up the national credit card again.

“While the House has proven that we are willing to take on the hard decisions that need to be made, this Administration seems far more interested in engaging in political theater. The President's threat to veto rather than embracing the pragmatic ideas of Cut, Cap and Balance continue this Administration's long-standing policy of putting politics above all else.”

Burton Signs On To “Cut, Cap, Balance Pledge”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN-05) issued the following statement after signing the “Cut, Cap, Balance Pledge” which promises to oppose any debt limit increase without substantial spending cuts for the upcoming year, caps on federal spending, and a strong Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.

“The CBO’s recent economic forecast paints a very sobering picture of what the future holds for our Nation if Washington does not immediately cease spending money it doesn’t have!  The CBO projects by the end of this year, the federal debt will reach roughly 70 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP) – the highest percentage since shortly after World War II by the year’s end; which is terrible news for our job seekers and job creators. Furthermore, with U.S. public debt set to reach 100 percent of GDP in 2021, time is beginning to work against us as we try to put our Nation back on course towards fiscal sanity."

“The time for action is now. That is why I have signed the “Cut, Cap, and Balance Pledge” which supports immediate and substantial spending cuts, enforceable spending caps and Congressional passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.  The American people are tired of games being played with their pocketbooks and their futures.  These are the kinds of measures that must be taken to avert a complete debt crisis.”

Background:

The RSC’s “Cut, Cap, and Balance” proposal includes:

1.    Immediate spending cuts to reduce the deficit by half next year.  According to March projections from the Congressional Budget Office, this would require spending cuts of approximately $380 billion in the 2012 fiscal year.

2.    Statutory, enforceable caps that bring spending into line with average revenues.  These caps would ratchet total federal spending down to 18% of GDP over the course of 5-6 years.

3.    House and Senate passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution that includes a spending cap at 18% of GDP and a supermajority requirement for tax increases.  The House Judiciary Committee and all 47 GOP Senators have endorsed Balanced Budget Amendments along these lines.

View the PDF of the signed copy of the pledge.

Rep. Burton Votes Against Raising the Debt Ceiling

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN-05) issued the following statement after voting against raising our Nation’s debt ceiling this evening:

“As our Nation’s debt continues to spiral out of control, it is foolhardy to believe that we can continue to do business as usual, robbing Peter to pay Paul to the detriment of the American people.  Every single day, there are Hoosiers in my district and Americans across our Nation, who continue to tighten their economic belts in a desperate effort to keep their financial house in order, hoping to fend off the ill effects of a uncertain and increasingly fatigued economy.  Unfortunately, this Administration has seen fit to not follow their laudable example. Instead, the President is opting to make the rules up as he goes along, proposing to raise our debt ceiling in a vain attempt to excuse his irresponsible spending initiatives. 

“We can no longer absorb this kind of debt without engaging dramatic cuts in spending.  I will not vote for any kind of increase in the debt ceiling so long as Washington’s careless spending continues to rage out of control.”

Blue Indiana: Really?

Thomas over at Blue Indiana, in response to THIS post, posed the question we've been hearing from a bunch of Democrats lately.  How could Republicans who spent a bunch of money on the War in Iraq, etc. now complain loudly when President Obama increases the defecit.

Congressman Burton has spoken to this issue several times, not to mention opposing at least two of President Bush's largest spending programs (Medicare Part D and the No Child Left Behind Act).  In addition, along with the Republican Study Committee that he founded, Dan pushed for a number of spending CUTS that were not supported by the Democrat Party.

Either way, its clear that if Republicans spent too much between 2001-2005, when they and Bush were in control, President Obama has set new records- making the Republicans look like "coupon-cutting grocery shoppers."  Take a look at a great video to illustrate the case...

24th Spirit of Enterprise Award

The US Chamber of Commerce has presented Dan the “Spirit of Enterprise Award” for the second session of the 110th Congress.  The Spirit of Enterprise Award from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is granted for voting in support of free enterprise and a strong economy.

Dan Burton: YouTube Superstar

We at TBB have been watching one of Dan's floor speeches become quite popular on YouTube.  It's worth the entire 5 1/2 minutes as Dan discusses the devaluing of our currency as a result of our government's overspending.  As of yesterday, it had been viewed nearly 15,000 times.  Enjoy.

Pelosi gets on board with Dan's position on Congressional pay raise

Although it was overshadowed by the Democrat's spending plan passed last week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided to implement Congressional pay recommendations that Dan was pushing in December.

The pertinent quote from the boss is below:

I applaud Speaker Pelosi’s decision to ask the Appropriations Committee to exclude any pay raise language from the upcoming Legislative Branch appropriations bill. In this gesture of fiscal discipline, Speaker Pelosi has also answered President Obama’s call for our nation to enter ‘a new era of responsibility'. As I said in January, it would be totally irresponsible for Members of Congress to accept a pay raise in the midst of the current economic crisis our country is facing. And, while I am aligned with those Americans who are outraged by the Democrat Congress’ unprecedented spending of taxpayer dollars, I do think that foregoing the Congressional pay raise next year is a least a sign of respect for our fellow taxpayers. I probably speak for most of my colleagues when I say that taking a pay raise during these extremely difficult times would be an insult to the people we represent.Although they failed to take action and block Congress’ Cost of Living Adjustment for 2009, I join my colleagues in applauding Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer for listening to our repeated requests, and instructing that the Congressional pay raise be blocked next year.

If only Pelosi had shown such discipline in last week's spending plan.  But, of course, it's possible that she didn't even know what was in it.

Great floor speech

This particular floor speech from Dan was pretty good and worth posting in its entirety on the blog:

Mr. Speaker, the week has ended, Republicans are going on a retreat, I presume the Democrats are going home, and there aren't many of us left in the Chamber. And sometimes I feel a little bit like some of my colleagues, like a voice hollering in the wilderness because it doesn't seem as though we're getting much attention on the issues that we raise.

In the late 1970s, we ended up with hyperinflation. Inflation was running at about 12, 14 percent; unemployment was running about 12 percent. And Mr. Carter brought a man in named Mr. Volcker to do something about the runaway inflation and the unemployment.

And Mr. Volcker came in to stop the inflation by raising interest rates, and he raised interest rates to 21.5 percent. He put a hammer on the entire economy of the United States. Businesses went under, the real estate industry went under. My business, we had $11 million in pending sales in real estate, we were only able to close on $1 million. We had to put 10 or 11 people out of work because you couldn't buy anything with interest rates being at 21.5 percent.

So what happened is the American people elected a man named Ronald Reagan, who came in and he said America could do better and would do better. And the way to do it was to give the American people some of their money back so they could spend it to buy things that they needed, thereby creating products, thereby creating jobs, and thereby helping economic growth. And within about 3 years, the economy turned around, and we had one of the largest and longest periods of economic growth in the last 100 years. And it was because we cut taxes for business, we cut taxes for individuals, and we stimulated economic growth.

Now we're heading down that path that we headed on down in the 1970s. Today we added $825 billion to the deficit. We had a $700 billion bailout for the banks and Wall Street not too long ago added to the deficit. The total in the last month or so added in spending was $1.539 trillion, and CBO says it's more than that. This is only going to cause more problems down the road. It's not, in my opinion, going to solve the problem of joblessness. It's going to add to the necessity for more spending.

This isn't the end of spending. This was asked on television I think earlier today: Is this going to solve the problem; is this the end of additional spending? It will not be. There are going to be trillions more added to the request for spending in the not-too-distant future. The President, the Vice President, and his chief economic advisor said that we're going to need more, that this was a good step first--a good first step, $1.5 trillion?

We're going to have more, and it's going to cause more economic problems down the road in the form of higher inflation, thereby, higher prices; and we're going to end up with somebody coming in to try to do something about the inflation, like Mr. Volcker did before, to put the hammer on it by raising interest rates, which will put a real hammer again on the economy of this country.

We're not solving these problems. We're not solving the problems of joblessness. We're not going to create new jobs with this plan we just passed today. We're going to create more government, not less. We're going to move this government toward socialism and away from the free enterprise system.

And the kids that are growing up today are going to be saddled with our debt. They're going to pay for it with higher taxes, higher spending down the road, inflation, and a lower standard of living. And this is something that we need not do.

There is still time to reverse this by realizing that the way to stimulate economic growth is by cutting taxes, not increasing spending, by cutting spending, not increasing spending. And if we do that, we will put this country on the road to economic recovery, which is the right approach. Not more government spending, not trillions more; that's only going to exacerbate the problem.

So, Mr. Speaker, the week has ended. We've spent all this money, we haven't solved the problem, and we're going to continue down the road we're on. I hope my colleagues, before it's too late, will realize free enterprise and lower taxes and less spending is the way to solve this problem, not socialism, more government, and more taxes.