Congressman Tim Griffin (AR-02) issued the following statement after House passage of the Require a PLAN Act (H.R. 444): “Like most Arkansans, I know we must get Washington’s spending addiction under control because it is stifling opportunity and making it harder for folks to find jobs. In January, the House passed the No Budget, No Pay Act – effectively forcing the Senate to pass a budget for the first time in four years. Today, the House took another critical step to addressing our nation’s annual trillion-dollar budget shortfall by passing the PLAN Act. The PLAN Act requires President Obama to convert his rhetoric about a ‘balanced approach’ into arithmetic that actually balances the budget.”
H.R. 444, which Griffin cosponsored, would require the President to either produce a budget that would balance within 10 years, or provide a supplemental plan by April 1, 2013, that identifies in which fiscal year his plan would achieve balance, and what steps that plan would take to achieve a balanced budget.
By law, the President must submit a budget each year on the first Monday in February. President Obama has failed to do so on time four out of the past five years, including this year. In fact, his past four budgets have all included annual deficits exceeding $1 trillion. Last year, his budget failed to garner a single vote in the Senate. During his presidency, the federal debt has increased by more than $5.8 trillion, reaching a record $16.4 trillion debt.
