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Bob Goodlatte: Budget week in Washington

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bob-goodlatte-afp2This week, the House passed our budget plan, The Path to Prosperity. The House plan is a responsible step in the right direction and tackles our spending problem head-on.

It provides a path to a balanced budget, eliminates funding for Obamacare and repeals the taxes in the law, and rejects the White House’s call for new taxes. Instead, the plan fixes the broken tax code to make it fairer and simpler for our families and small businesses. The House plan reduces deficits by $4.6 trillion over the next ten years and makes it clear that the government cannot continue to pile this burden of debt on the backs of our children and grandchildren. Reducing spending to balance our budget is critical to growing our economy and creating American jobs. It also preserves and strengthens programs, such as Medicare and Social Security, for future generations while protecting benefits for today’s seniors.

While the House is hard at work on policies to address America’s fiscal challenges, the president’s budget has been inexplicably delayed until April – a full two months late. However, he has already said he wouldn’t balance the budget “just for the sake of balance.”  The House budget doesn’t balance just for the sake of it.  It balances because that is how we tackle the spending driving America’s debt. A balanced budget is a means to an end and is necessary to fix this spending problem.

I also voted in favor of the Republican Study Committee budget alternative that balances the budget in four years and makes even greater cuts to bloated federal spending.  Our nation demands bold proposals to address the fiscal challenges facing future generations.

To govern is to choose and the path of choice is clear. Balancing the budget is the responsibility of America’s lawmakers. The Congress – both the House and Senate – have a responsibility to put together a sustainable budget and stick to it. I remain committed to making the tough, but necessary, decisions to cut government spending to ensure a more prosperous future for America.

Bob Goodlatte represents the Sixth District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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