Akin: Budget bill is a step in the right direction

(From U. S. Senate candidate Todd Akin)

Congressman Akin released the following statement after the House of Representatives passed the Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act today:

“Our great nation is under attack from our own inability to live within our means and be fiscally responsible.  The Budget Control Act, which I strongly opposed, put faith in the failed Super Committee to get our fiscal house in order, and caused $98 billion in indiscriminant discretionary spending cuts. 

“I am pleased to announce that despite the Senate’s refusal to pass a budget in over 1,000 days the House has made the hard choices and smart cuts to offset the sequester and save $20 billion by FY2013 and over $300 billion over the next decade.  I worked with the Budget Committee to also make sure that VA funding remains untouched and that 200,000 soldiers and Marines will keep their jobs while avoiding cuts to defense programs that are crucial to our national security. 

“Our bill achieves these savings by initiating reforms that stop entitlement fraud and waste, eliminate federal government slush funds associated with Obamacare and bailout accounts instituted by the Dodd-Frank Act.  The bill also creates savings through meaningful tort reform, restrains federal bureaucracies, and cuts wasteful duplicative programs.

“I firmly believe that as elected stewards of the American taxpayer, we have an obligation to be responsible in our use of taxpayer dollars.  The bill we passed today is a step in the right direction.”