Honest Budget Act Promotes Spending Restraint

Washington, D.C. - For the fourth straight year, the country will have spent more than a trillion dollars it does not have.  Yesterday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released its 2012 Budget and Economic Outlook, estimating the fiscal year 2012 deficit will add another trillion dollars to our national debt.  This out-of-control spending remains unsustainable for our country, and America cannot continue on this course, says Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, a member of the Senate Budget and Finance Committees.  

Last fall, Crapo joined Senate colleagues to introduce the Honest Budget Act (HBA), a bill that will bring transparency and sound fiscal policy to the spending process in the Senate.  Today, House Republicans introduced a companion bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The HBA is a legislative package that will stop Washington's misleading budget gimmicks, such as spending money without a budget, mischaracterized emergency spending and counting false savings.  Crapo said that since 2005 alone, some of these gimmicks have enabled more than $420 billion in deficit spending. 

"Washington routinely relies on budget gimmicks and sleight-of-hand practices to facilitate deficit spending," Crapo said.  "At more than $15 trillion, our gross debt is the biggest national threat facing our country, yet the issue was barely mentioned during the State of the Union address.  Sensible reforms like those in the HBA, along with serious tax and regulatory reform, are steps that we can take to address our burgeoning debt and hold Washington more accountable for how taxpayer dollars are spent."

Crapo added that it has been more than 1,000 days since the Senate Majority has offered a fiscal year budget to America, while taxpayers and job creators continue to suffer under the weight of Washington's spending.  He said passing the HBA will force Congress to prioritize and budget, while bringing transparency, honesty and accountability to the budgeting process, a necessary step in restraining government spending.