John Cornyn: “there has been a complete abdication of fiscal responsibility in Congress, particularly in the Senate, for the last 4…”

“there has been a complete abdication of fiscal responsibility in Congress, particularly in the Senate, for the last 4 years, in that there has been no budget passed in this Senate for that period of time. What better manifestation, what uglier manifestation of that fiscal irresponsibility than the $16.5 trillion in debt. Another symptom of that problem is the fact that in addition to the Senate not passing a budget for the last 4 years, in 4 out of the last 5 years, the President of the United States has missed the statutory deadline on submitting his proposed budget to the Senate for consideration and to the Congress. Really, when we are talking about budgeting, the House is going to pass a budget that limits the rate of growth of Federal spending from 5.4 percent to 3.4 percent. It limits the rate of growth. Now, most of America would not call that a cut. But for some reason that is called a cut in Washington. What I would call that is a limitation on the rate of growth of Federal spending. It is important we get the President's proposed budget, as required by the law. The law requires the President to send his proposed budget to the Congress by the first Monday in February. He has not done so, and we have been advised that we probably will not even see the President's proposed budget until our work here is done.…”