President Obama Has Never Proposed A Balanced Budget

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Steve Scalise (R-La.) at a press conference earlier today discussed President Obama’s $4.1 trillion budget proposal:

Click here to watch his remarks

Remarks:

“When the president released his budget yesterday, there were two things that were very clear. The first, is that President Obama does not think it's important to balance the federal budget. He has never issued a budget that gets to balance and his latest budget never gets to balance.

“The second thing that's very clear in the President's budget is he doesn't think American families are paying enough in taxes. Over $2 trillion of new taxes are proposed in this budget, including a tax on oil. And let's look at what this tax on oil that President Obama is proposing would do to hard-working families.

“It would raise over $60 billion a year in new taxes in the price that people pay at the pump. And the President's own administration made it very clear that this would be passed on to consumers all across the country. This would be a new tax that would be paid by hard-working taxpayers who are already struggling because of his policies.

“That's why we have said that the President's tax proposal is dead on arrival in the House. It will not happen because we stand with the American people who think they're already paying too much in taxes, which is a dramatic contrast to the President who thinks Americans are not paying enough in taxes. So there couldn't be a bigger contrast between our two visions.

“And that's what we've laid out in every budget that [House Republicans] have presented. Every budget we've brought forward since we've been in the House majority gets to balance in the 10-year window and doesn't raise a dime in new taxes. And of course, it shows you if you want to get the economy moving again, if you want to get this country back to fiscal sanity, not raising taxes is the answer because the President's proposals have raised taxes every year and never gets a balance.

“The other thing is I think is important that we point out and celebrate is the historic ruling by the Supreme Court last night. In a five-four decision, the Supreme Court blocked the President's latest radical agenda that increases the cost on American families in their utility bills. And it was an important ruling because it protects American families from seeing these kind of cost increases.

“If you look at just some of the latest EPA proposals, which include the plan that was blocked by the Supreme Court last night, in Louisiana alone, we would see over 16,000 jobs lost, and Louisiana families alone would see increases of over 20 percent in their household electricity rates because of these Obama EPA proposals that are coming forward. So what the Supreme Court blocked last night was any attempt by the President to dramatically raise the cost of electricity rates on hard-working families all across this country.”