Washington, D.C. – Following the release of the final proposal from the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., member of the Senate Finance Committee and Senate Budget Committee, made the following comments.
“Everything should be on the table. The state of the nation’s finances is too dire not to look at all options to get our fiscal ship headed in the right direction. Either we’ll pay now or we’ll pay later. The debt increases about $40,000 every second so we can’t afford later. The government charge card is maxed out. There are several proposals on the table and I appreciate all the work that went into them. Just putting these ideas out for public scrutiny was a hard task.
“Now Congress must embark on an even harder task. We must act on the proposals. Each change will be the enemy of one group or another. Packaging many changes together will multiply the enemies and make passage less realistic. To succeed in chewing down our enormous debt, we’ll need to take a bite by bite approach.
“Many of these proposals are already ruffling feathers but the sacrifice must be shared. It isn’t helpful to keep fighting for the status quo that is crippling our nation. The offended groups should help provide solutions in their own budgets to decrease the debt, not point fingers at other programs they think should be cut while protecting themselves. This country won’t make any progress unless the sacrifice is spread across everyone.
“I am studying these specific proposals and I look forward to serious debate in the Budget Committee, Finance Committee, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the full Senate. There are some proposals in the Commission’s report that I agree with and others that concern me. While that is the case, this is a serious effort that deserves serious consideration. Partisan bickering and trying to show up the other side contributed to the debt. It’s not going to help us get out.”
