“We’re in the crisis phase, past the tipping point here”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators David Perdue (R-GA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) discuss Congress’ broken budget process at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget’s First Annual Better Budget Process Summit.

 

Senator Perdue Highlights:

Time For Change: “The budget process is broken. I’ve met people who actually voted for that bill in 1974 and they’re calling for its revision today.”

Two And A Half Bills: “Of the 12 appropriations bills, Congress has only averaged two and a half bills each year over the last 44 years and actually shut the government down 20 times in those 44 years over this issue. This is a system that does not allow for active debate. I fought hard to get on the budget committee coming from the business world thinking this is where the action is, but it’s a joke.”

No Longer Acceptable: “It doesn’t matter which system you use to fix the budget process. You have to have consequences that are real, and that preclude the release valve that we have today which is an omnibus. After over 180 CRs in the last 44 years, we end up with an omnibus where a group of people get in a room and decide how to spend a trillion dollars. It’s not acceptable anymore.”

Taking The Easy Way Out: “Since 1913, the debt ceiling hasn’t worked. Washington just keeps bumping it up so there’s always a release valve. The release valve is more spending. You have a Democrat and Republican here saying $21 trillion of debt is not acceptable. We have to find a way to solve it. We’ll differ on how to solve it and that’s why we’re arguing for creating a politically neutral platform during the budget process that is actually meaningful.”

Top Responsibility: “I believe one of the reasons Congress has a low approval rating is because it doesn’t do its basic responsibility laid out in the Constitution, and that’s to fund the government. People back home don’t understand what a CR or omnibus is.”

Past The Tipping Point: “Mandatory spending has already doubled and it’s going to double again soon. That’s spending on Social Security, Medicare, pension benefits for federal employees and the interest on the debt. There’s a growing realization that this is not acceptable anymore. We’re in the crisis phase, past the tipping point here.”

Real Crisis: “I ran on the debt. People in the political sphere said you can’t run on that, but we did. In Georgia, I continue to hear people agree this is a crisis we need to do something about.”