Rep. Lee: Dems have fallen down on the job by failing to produce budget

Republicans are continuing to hit House Democrats for failing to
produce a budget, arguing that skipping the yearly fiscal blueprint
would be an unprecedented failure of leadership.

Rep. Chris Lee (R-N.Y.) used the GOP weekly address to slam Democrats
for passing expensive bills such as the trillion-dollar stimulus and
healthcare measures while failing to pass a budget so far this year.

{mosads}“And now, after leaving taxpayers on the hook for massive ‘stimulus’
programs and permanent bailouts, Democrats in Washington have no
credible plan to put our fiscal house in order,” Lee said. “In fact,
House Democrats may not even offer a budget this year.”

Lee referred to Congressional Research Service tracking in noting that
the House has passed a budget every year since the Budget Act of 1974
was enacted.

“This is a remarkable failure of leadership: according to the
nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, not passing a budget
resolution would be unprecedented in the modern era,” Lee said.

Families must make tough choices to live within a budget, Lee said, so
government should be forced to do the same.

“One Democratic leader in Congress has called the budget ‘the most
basic responsibility of governing,’” Lee said. “Another Democratic
leader has said, ‘if you can’t budget, you can’t govern.’ But now
these same Democrats just want to continue spending money we don’t
have, and they want to do it without a budget.”

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) late Thursday said
Democrats haven’t offered a budget because they don’t have the votes
to pass one.

“The fact is there aren’t enough voting days before the election to do
anything,” Boehner said on Fox News. “So if you are going to have a
budget, we need it now so we can begin the real work of getting our
arms around the out-of-control spending here in Washington.”

Democratic leaders have yet to make a decision on whether or not to
produce a budget. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has said she is
working with her caucus to write one, but deep divisions between
centrist and more liberal Democrats have thwarted efforts so far.

The trillion-dollar stimulus bill was supposed to keep unemployment
below 8 percent, but joblessness is now near 10 percent and the
national debt has risen by more than $2 trillion since Obama has taken
office to a record $12.9 trillion, Lee added.

“In just two more years, according to the President’s own estimates,
our national debt will surpass the size of our entire economy,” Lee
said. “And unless we change course, our debt will reach levels now
being experienced by Greece, whose debt is projected to reach 125
percent of its economy this year.”