From the House Republican Conference Policy Team:

House Democrat Leader Steny Hoyer has finally admitted the sad truth that Democrats had been avoiding since the April 15 deadline to pass a federal budget came and went over two months ago—the House will not pass a budget resolution for the first time since modern budgeting began. According to press reports, the reason Democrats refuse to address the fiscal crisis facing our country is because “there’s little appetite for taking on these issues in an election year.”   It seems that Democrats are content to spend this election year hiding the true costs and record deficits of their big government policies. 

Leader Hoyer has recently attempted to position himself as a fiscal hawk, saying in April, “The course we are on leads to debt that exceeds the value of our entire economy.  To a government that does nothing but pay for entitlements and pay interest to our creditors.  And an end to American leadership in the world. ”   Sadly, it seems that partisan election-year politics are more important to Democrats than America’s leadership in the world.

Hoyer told the press, “It isn’t possible to debate and pass a realistic, long-term budget until we’ve considered the bipartisan commission’s deficit-reduction plan, which is expected in December.”  The Leader is referring to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, which was established by a presidential executive order (EO) on February 18, 2010, to “address our nation's fiscal challenges.” The glaring problem with Leader Hoyer’s excuse is that the Commission was never meant to have any effect on the FY 2011 budget process, and no Democrat ever asserted that this year’s budget depended on the Commission’s recommendations. 

The American people deserve a budget from the House, not a political smokescreen.  The Commission was created by a presidential decree and has nothing to do with the Democrats’ responsibility to pass an annual budget.  Passing an annual budget is undisputedly the responsibility of Congress and is being shirked by Democrats so they can hide their big spending, big deficit agenda from taxpayers until after the election.

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