Lankford: America Has a Debt Issue

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) issued the following statement on the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Budget and Economic Outlook for fiscal years 2020 through 2030 report showing US debt and deficits are projected to continue rising dramatically:

“The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office’s latest report on our nation’s skyrocketing debt and deficits continues to paint a picture of what my team and I have been trying to address for years–our nation’s debt. Deficit is not something that we can continue to say that we will address ‘someday.’ We need to get on top of our spending problems now while our economy is growing. After the tax reform of 2017, the US Treasury has received the highest amount of tax revenue in the history of our country, but our spending continues to skyrocket. As Congress prepares to start discussions on how we will fund the government for the next fiscal year, I remain committed to actually solving our federal debt and deficit issues with real, tangible solutions to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in our government. This includes addressing government shutdowns, which cost taxpayers billions of dollars. It also includes creating a moment every year or two in which Congress is regularly forced to face our fiscal challenges and vote on a proposal to address them.”

Background

Lankford has pushed for commonsense, practical reforms to address our debt and deficit. Since 2015, Lankford has introduced a federal waste and solutions report to provides way to address the national debt and deficit called Federal Fumbles: Ways the government dropped the ball. In his latest report, Lankford listed $383 billion in wasteful and inefficient federal spending on a variety of programs and processes throughout the federal government. Following the release in November 2019, Lankford spoke about the report on the Senate floor and covered why addressing our nation’s national debt and deficit is important. Lankford has pursued a number of solutions to address some of the largest and smallest areas of waste, including making significant reforms to the budget and appropriations process. Lankford serves on the Appropriations Committee and served on the Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform in 2018. Lankford continues to address government shutdowns, which cost taxpayers billions of dollars with his bipartisan Prevent Government Shutdowns Act. The Prevent Government Shutdowns Act holds Members of Congress accountable and protects the taxpayers by keeping Members and their staffs in DC until the work to fund the government is complete.

In 2019, Lankford was recognized as one of the top 10 most conservative members of the Senate for his record of addressing the national debt and deficit.

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