Friday, May 18, 2012

McCaskill: There's a right way to cut spending

In her latest newsletter, Sen. Claire McCaskill says there is a right way and a wrong way to cut spending and, as you might expect, she thinks the Republican way is the wrong way:


If there's one thing we can all agree on, it's the need for Congress to cut spending.

Since I arrived at the Senate, I've fought to force Congress to do something Missouri families do each and every day-live within its means.

My effort to cap federal spending came within a few votes of passage. My battle against Congressional earmarks-and my refusal to ever request an earmark-hasn't made me the most popular person with my colleagues. And my work cracking down on waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars through contracting has certainly ruffled some feathers.

Cutting spending can be painful, but it's necessary, and I've fought to pass smart spending cuts.

This week, I voted against a string of proposals that some claimed were simple budget proposals. But the fact is, we already have a budget in place. I supported the federal budget currently in place as part of the Budget Control Act, which passed after last year's debt ceiling compromise. That legislation set the budget for two years, and aims to cut the federal budget deficit by more than $2 trillion.

The proposals considered this week were nothing more than a race to see which one could end Medicare first, which could kill Pell Grants the quickest, and which would most effectively cripple our investments in roads and bridges-all while providing more tax cuts to multi-millionaires and billionaires.

There is a right way to reduce our spending and cut the national debt-that's through tax reform to level the playing field, cutting spending across the board while maintaining our investment in education and infrastructure, and through commonsense ideas like no longer buying prescription drugs for the very wealthiest Americans.

That's the kind of compromise I'm fighting for.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Budget? What budget? The senate hasn't passed a budget for over 1,000 days. What we have is government being funded by continuing resolution. What's McCaskill taking about?