WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Jim Himes (CT-4) today praised Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad for releasing a budget proposal based on the recommendations of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Last month, Himes supported a similar proposal during House consideration of the 2013 budget.
“Senator Conrad’s has presented honest, serious budget recommendations that put partisan politics aside and restore our nation’s fiscal stability. No budget choices are easy, and I commend the Senator for this brave, thoughtful proposal that reduces the nation’s deficit while ensuring we have the resources we need to invest in our future.”
According to Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, the co-chairs of the President’s Fiscal Reform Commission, the budget resolution put forward by Chairman Conrad is based on several key principles that must be part of any responsible fiscal plan:
“First and foremost, it would achieve enough deficit reduction to stabilize the debt and put it on a downward path as a percent of GDP, preventing a fiscal crisis in the short-term and moving us toward a sustainable path over the long-term. In addition, the proposal acknowledges that any serious bipartisan plan must trim defense spending, non-defense spending, entitlement spending, and spending in the tax code. To that end, the Chairman's Mark includes not only spending cuts but calls for real tax reform that lowers rates, broadens the base, and helps pay down the deficit. The budget would also replace the immediate, mindless, across-the-board spending cuts in the sequester with targeted cuts that would be phased in thoughtfully and gradually to avoid harming our fragile economic recovery, compromising our national security, or hurting the most vulnerable among us.”