Washington, D.C. – The following is a written statement by Steve Ellis, Vice President for Programs at Taxpayers for Common Sense on the President’s FY2005 budget request:

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today, forecasting a much longer winter for these record federal deficits. The new federal budget makes me feel a lot like Bill Murray in the movie “Groundhog Day.” Just like the movie, this budgetary bad dream keeps repeating itself. Once again we’ve been presented a budget that is long on promises, short on reality, and incapable of taking our nation’s fiscal health off of life support.

We keep on hearing about the importance of cutting deficits and wasteful spending, but words are just air if they are not backed by a threat to veto major spending bills. Aside from a lot of deficit lip service, the President’s budget doesn’t do enough to control federal spending.

Should we control road funding? Yes. But, with bills before Congress ranging between $50 and $100 billion more than the President’s request, it’s doubtful that the Congress will play follow the leader. To accomplish this deficit slashing, the President proposes to limit discretionary spending increases to 4% per year, allowing for a 7% increase in defense, a 10% homeland security spending and only a 0.5% increase in non-defense discretionary spending. For example, this assumes that the administration highway spending proposal and a 13% cut in Corps of Engineers water projects would receive full congressional backing. This is as likely as Chicago Bears winning the Super Bowl.

Cutting the budget deficit in half over the next five years is a tall tale, derived in large part by omitting very likely or inevitable costs for items such as proposals for programs that the Administration strongly supports, including: more than $50 billion for operations in Iraq, true Alternative Minimum Tax relief instead of a one-year patch, and extension of the existing tax breaks. Increased revenues from a rebounding economy will help, but not to the tune of the rosy 13.2% projection made by the President’s budget.

It’s no doubt that the administration will try to place the budget deficit blame on the lawmakers on Capitol Hill. But, a portion of the responsibility falls at the feet of the President, who has the power to veto pork-laden and inappropriate spending bills, but has failed to do so even once.

To really change this trend, the borrow-and-spend lawmakers have to admit that mortgaging our children’s future and outrageously undermining our fiscal integrity has been one big mistake. That isn’t likely to happen until this administration gets truly serious about reducing the deficit. All we got today was more-a whole lot more-of the same.

Contact: Keith Ashdown
(202) 546-8500 x110