U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, released the following statement on the budget proposal introduced today.
“As a new member of the Budget Committee, I’m glad to be a part of this process and pleased we’re returning to normal budgetary order. I believe the Senate budget is a good one for the country and a good one for Virginia. It offers the right values and priorities and takes the right approach to spending reductions and revenues. While the House proposal seeks to balance the federal budget in ten years, our primary values are a growing economy and the creation of jobs – real life, measurable outcomes as opposed to illusory numbers on a page. Our budget’s inclusion of a $100 billion infrastructure package is an indication that a strong economy and job creation is our top priority.
“The Senate budget also reduces the deficit and debt in an economically responsible way by adding $1.85 trillion in deficit reduction to the $2.4 trillion we’ve already achieved for a total of over $4 trillion. And we do it in a balanced way that involves both spending and revenue. On spending reductions, our budget replaces the harmful, across-the-board sequester cuts with targeted deficit reduction that would save tens of thousands of Virginia jobs and protect defense and key non-defense priorities while keeping the promises we’ve made. And on revenue, it takes the right approach, reducing tax expenditures by 8 percent. Not an increase in rates or a huge change to tax expenditures, but a step that would result in over $975 billion in revenue and a very sensible ratio of revenue to spending cuts.
“There’s simply no substitute for a normal, orderly budget process. Vigorous debate, amendments voted up and voted down, agreements, disagreements – it’s this process that will produce both House and Senate budgets and I’m hopeful we can come together in the end to find a compromise that is good for the country.”
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