On the recordFebruary 14, 2011
Mr. President, today, the President released his budget for fiscal year 2012. If this is his idea of a Valentine's gift to America and to the American people, he has an odd way of showing his affection. It is the equivalent of taking your fiancee to dinner, asking her to marry you, and then leaving her to take care of the check, your maxed out credit cards, your underwater mortgage, and the bill for the ring. This budget is, quite simply, an abdication of adult responsibility, and it is a particular abdication of the responsibility of the President of the United States, who takes an oath to protect and defend our Constitution. Our economy is dealing with the hangover from the 2008 economic collapse, the greatest fiscal crisis I have seen and that we have seen in several generations. Our recovery has been sluggish, and it is not being helped by this administration's regulatory overload and ObamaCare, which is set to kill 800,000 jobs. We can already see a still larger crisis approaching. This is nothing short of an existential challenge. Continued deficits and accumulated debt are a genuine threat to individual liberty, continued prosperity, and national security. Absent immediate action--and let me stress this needs to be immediate action--we face a future where our union is not more perfect and where government will stand in the way of enterprising businesses and citizens whose only wish is the opportunity to thrive.…





