Graves: We must rein in federal spending

(From Sixth District Congressman Sam Graves)

Americans are fed up with the wasteful spending in Washington and they once again made that very clear this past November. Families across north Missouri and America routinely sit down at the kitchen table to set priorities for their spending and make the difficult decisions necessary in order to balance their budgets – Washington should do the same.

I had hoped that the President would show leadership with his latest spending proposal and finally make the same difficult decisions needed to balance the federal budget. Rather than making these decisions, the President’s recent budget proposal continues the reckless practice of borrowing billions from China to pay for more wasteful, big government spending. His priorities remain both higher taxes and bigger government in the form of new spending – while our children and grandchildren foot the bill.

With annual deficits skyrocketing, we must take action to rein in the growth in federal spending and pay down the debt. That is why I support a constitutional amendment that requires the federal government to balance its budget. If Washington cannot be trusted to not spend more than it takes in, then we need a stronger mechanism to force fiscal accountability from our elected officials. A constitutional amendment would do just that.

At the end of the day, the president’s budget is more of the same - more taxes, more spending, more borrowing, more debt, and more government. It is not a serious plan for our nation’s future.