In response to the Senate Budget Committee’s recently released draft amendment to the House’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget resolution, Carolyn Bourdeaux, Executive Director of Concord Action, released the following statement:
“The Senate Budget Committee’s draft amendment appears to be allowing the Committee itself to pick its own budgetary score instead of using Congressional Budget Office numbers. This is like letting a baseball pitcher call his own balls and strikes. The resolution not only abandons fiscal responsibility, it abandons the very notion of a budget process, which at some level requires honest, transparent accounting for tradeoffs. This is a complete corruption of the reconciliation process and will add trillions to our already staggering $36 trillion in debt.
This budget resolution pretends huge tax cuts have no impact on the deficit. This is absurd. Meanwhile, the resolution refuses to address spending in meaningful or responsible ways. The committee members appear to be confusing “b” or billions in spending reductions with the “t” or trillions that would be required to offset their tax cuts.
Just last week, the Congressional Budget Office issued projections we should all take as a dire warning that our national debt is unsustainable and the future of our economy is at risk. Instead of formulating a plan to address our very serious fiscal situation, Congress is irresponsibly piling on more debt that will ultimately worsen our nation’s economic outlook.
Simply put, our budget process is in complete disarray. This current fiasco is the latest reminder that we need a return to regular order and responsibility when it comes to budgeting. The American people deserve better from their elected officials.”
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