House Democrats fight Bush Deficit

The President’s Fiscal Commission met yesterday for the first time to develop long-term solutions to reducing the Bush Deficit. President Bush and his Republican cohorts in Congress managed to turn record budget surpluses into record deficits and the worst economic crisis in a generation, in just 8 years. Now President Obama and House Democrats are doing the hard work to return fiscal discipline and prosperity to our nation. Just as American families are making tough budget decisions around their kitchen table, we believe we must make the same kind of choices at the national level.

President Obama, in his opening remarks, said:

“This is going to require people of both parties to come together and take a hard look at the growing gap between what the government spends and what the government raises in revenue. And it will require that we put politics aside -– that we think more about the next generation than the next election. There is simply no other way to do it.”

Representative Xavier Becerra, Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus, was one of three House Democrats appointed to the Commission. Following the meeting, Becerra said:

“I’m excited to be part of an effort to move this country in the direction of fiscal responsibility and future prosperity. As we talk dollars and cents, I hope we remember this is our opportunity to ask: what kind of a country do we want to live in? What should our priorities be as a people? Should everyone – rich or poor, young and old, rural and urban – share in the pain and share in the gain? I’m looking forward to the challenge of answering these tough questions and laying a transparent roadmap for the way forward for America’s next generation of leaders.”

The other House Democrats appointed to the Commission are Rep. John Spratt from South Carolina, chairman of the House Budget Committee, and Rep. Jan Schakowsky from Illinois, who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Democrats and President Obama passed a bill to restore the “pay-as-you-go” budget disciple, common sense rules of the road that we shouldn’t spend money on one thing without saving it somewhere else. Republicans let these rules expire in 2002, contributing to the dramatic turnaround from a projected 10-year surplus of $5.6 trillion when Clinton left office to projected deficits of $4.5 trillion.