Congresswoman Sutton Speaks on the President's Budget and the Economy

February 24, 2009

Statement on the President's Budget and the Economy

President Obama inherited a fiscal mess created by eight years of Republican economic and fiscal policies.

Tonight our new president will begin the slow process of restoring fiscal discipline to Washington.

He will do that first by leveling with the American people about the true costs of the budget he'll release on Thursday.

Second, he will reinstitute the pay-as-you-go guidelines similar to those that have been in place here in the Democratic house now for the last two years.

The principal of pay-as-you-go played an instrumental role in creating the budget surpluses of the 1990 's. Unfortunately, those common sense principles were rejected by the Bush Administration and helped lead to the record deficit that our country must now address.

Third, president Obama is expected to propose mandatory across-the-board spending cuts to offset any new initiative that expands the government's red ink.

These reforms will help cut the budget deficit in half over the next five years which is not bad considering what we inherited from our Republican friends.