Sen. Warner on Trump budget, infrastructure proposal

U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, released the following statement on President Trump’s budget proposal and infrastructure “principles.”

“Once again, the Administration has put forth a budget that attacks the pay and retirement security of federal workers, slashes funding for Chesapeake Bay cleanup, and fails to seriously invest in critical infrastructure.

“What the President proposed today isn’t a real infrastructure plan. It is simply designed to let the President take credit for the investments, while sticking states and localities with the bill. Selling off property like the GW Parkway, Dulles Airport, and Reagan National will not improve our infrastructure – it will only mean higher costs for the traveling public. And as with the rest of the President’s budget request, the Administration does nothing to describe how it would pay for its own transportation proposal.

“The President’s budget proposal puts the burdens of deficit reduction on all the wrong places by slashing funding for Medicaid, college loans, and food assistance for needy families, and bringing overall non-defense investments down to levels not seen in modern times. But even as working families struggle, corporations will continue to spend tens of billions of dollars on share buybacks after receiving a windfall in the form of the $2.5 trillion unpaid-for tax cut.

“Even using economic assumptions rejected by leading economists, this budget would still leave America deeply in the red. Over the long term, this unsustainable level of debt will jeopardize everyone’s prosperity. While this Administration has abandoned the Republican Party’s longtime goal of reducing deficit spending, Congress must come together to find balanced solutions to address our fiscal situation.”