Hartzler: Budget resolution "one small step in the right direction"

In a news release issued this afternoon, Fourth District Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler described today's budget vote as "one small step in the right direction."

 Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler (MO-4) views the final 2011 Continuing Resolution as only the beginning in an effort to restore America to fiscal solvency.


“Passage of this final budget measure to fund the government through the end of 2011 is just one small step in the right direction,” said Hartzler. “It begins the process of changing the direction of federal spending and will clear the decks for the 2012 budget which will cut trillions of dollars in government spending.”

“The Congressional Budget Office confirms this agreement cuts nearly $40 billion in spending for 2011,” added Hartzler. “That cut in the baseline will reduce our runaway spending by $315 billion over 10 years. In addition to reducing discretionary spending, it also increases funding for our troops by $5 billion above last year’s level. America’s men and women in uniform deserve all of our support and this Continuing Resolution ensures they continue to receive their paychecks on time and are given the resources they need to keep America safe.”

“This Continuing Resolution secures important government efficiencies and priorities embraced by residents of Missouri’s 4th Congressional District,” concluded Hartzler. “It prohibits funding for the establishment of a Climate Service at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); it restores a long-standing provision against the use of federal and local funds for abortions in the District of Columbia, and; it includes language preventing the transfer of terrorist suspects from Guantanamo Bay to the United States.”

With work on the 2011 budget now complete, attention turns to House Budget Chair Paul Ryan’s bold fiscal plan for 2012. His blueprint for job creation cuts job-crushing government spending by $6.2 trillion over the next decade, compared to the President’s budget, and creates nearly one-million new private-sector jobs next year. With his 2012 budget proposal, Congressman Ryan goes beyond symbolic cuts and moves this nation in the direction of actual reform. The House will vote on this proposal tomorrow. Congress and the nation are headed in a new direction.