Senator Lankford: Obama’s Budget is a Partisan Playbook of Spending Priorities

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) today released the following statement on President Obama’s $4.1 trillion budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2017: 

“President Obama’s budget has turned the annual White House budget into a partisan playbook of spending priorities that is more suited for a stump speech than a responsible governing document. When forced to vote on it in the Senate, Obama’s budget has been voted down by a combined vote total of 294-1 in the last four years.

“Under President Obama, our debt has reached a mind-boggling $19 trillion. Within the next ten years, the interest on the debt alone is projected to surpass our spending on the Department of Defense. Our debt problem will hinder our nation’s leadership in the world, and hold back the economies of future generations. The only solution to our debt crisis is economic growth and substantial entitlement reform, neither of which is in Obama’s budget proposal.

“Budget reform is essential to repair our broken budget process. To deal with our debt, we need to eliminate budget gimmicks that give Congress the appearance of accomplishment without actually reducing our debt.

Senator Lankford gave a speech on the floor of the Senate today about his reform proposals to improve the Congressional budgeting process in order to address America’s debt crisis. In the speech, he proposed reforms such as biennial budgeting, government shutdown prevention incentives, and the elimination of budget gimmicks.

In November, Lankford released a federal government waste report entitled, “Federal Fumbles: 100 ways the government dropped the ball,” which listed $105 billion in wasteful spending and policy solutions to each example of waste. The President’s proposed budget continues many of the wasteful funding levels for many programs highlighted in Lankford’s report, such as $254 million for the Essential Air Service transportation program (p.64). Lankford’s report also called for reforms to programs plagued with improper payment and fraud problems, including Social Security Disability Insurance (p.56, 119), the American Opportunity Tax Credit (p.88), Earned Income Tax Credit (p.89), and others, however, the President’s budget continues many of the programs without any reforms.

Senator Lankford serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee. His five Appropriations subcommittees include: Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development; Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies; Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government; Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies; and Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs.

A vote on President Obama’s Budget failed 97-0 in the Senate in 2011, 99-0 in 2012, and 98-1 in 2015. 

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